Not From Here
by BigTimeGaga
Summary: The government has secrets, everyone knows that. What happens when a curious Kendall Knight goes snooping around a science center and stumbles upon a secret military facility containing subject 1397 also known as Carlos from - Origin Unknown.
1. Carlos Garcia

**A/N: This story is one that I've looked forward to posting since I thought about it but I needed to come up with more plot before I posted it. So obviously,I did that and now I'm going to let you dive into the first chapter of Not From Here! ENJOY :D**

* * *

"We can take them!"

"We can't take them!" Mrs. Garcia told her husband as she cradled her newborn baby.

"Honey, yes we can." Mr. Garcia told his wife.

"No. We can't and you know we can't. They're going to kill us just like the rest of the family. Once they find us, what can we do?"

"We can fight back."

"What about Carlos?" Mrs. Garcia asked her husband as they both stared down at their baby. Carlos giggled and smiled a toothless smile at his parents. Mr. Garcia knew that the two month old wouldn't have a chance of survival here on their planet if they died. He would most likely be captured and raised as one of the enemy. Mrs. Garcia knew what they had to do for the safety of their child.

"We're going to have to send him somewhere else until we can get to him." Mr. Garcia told her.

"What if we never get to him?"

"If we die, someone will take care of him."

Mrs. Garcia felt tears come to her eyes as she looked down at her son. Mr. Garcia took his necklace off that had Carlos' name on it and put it around his son's neck. Carlos looked up at his parents as they leaned down and kissed him. Mrs. Garcia hugged her child close to her before handing him to his father. Mr. Garcia walked over to the escape pod they had built in their home. It was only big enough for one person and they decided to use it for Carlos.

"Wait." Mrs. Garcia said before running and grabbing one of the recently taken family photos. She sat it in the pod with her son before caressing his cheek.

"We will always love you Carlos and we will look for you once all of this is over." Carlos stared at his parents until the door to the escape pod closed.

Mr. Garcia set the coordinates for a planet similar to theirs also known as Earth before pressing the lift off button. Mrs. Garcia silently cried as she watched her only child be lifted in the escape pod before it shot into the sky. Mr. and Mrs. Garcia both turned around when they heard the sound of their front door being blown down.

* * *

Carlos looked around in awe as he looked at all of the pretty lights and stars.

The pod changed to his favorite color, purple, which got his attention more as he flew across the galaxies. The pod followed it's coordinates exactly as set.

From the inside, Carlos was perfectly safe and couldn't feel the harsh speed of the space craft, moving faster than the speed of light.

* * *

"Sir, there's something headed towards Earth."

"It's probably just a small asteroid, it'll be destroyed by the time it gets here."

"Um, sir, it seems to be moving abnormally and it isn't getting smaller." One of the workers of NASA told the General.

"How far is it from touchdown?" The man asked, sitting up in his chair.

"It's hard to put a time on it because it's moving too fast."

"I NEED A NUMBER NOW!"

"In about twenty minutes." The man said, shakenly.

"Touchdown location?"

"Um, Minnesota, about ten minutes from here."

"Print the coordinates now."

"Printing coordinates." Another worker spoke a second later before handing them to the man.

"Get me a vehicle now." The man said, getting out of his chair, running down the hallway. He swiftly made his way up the flights of steps, thanking his years in the military for his stamina. He reached the top flight and continued his running down another hallway.

"Dr. Wainwright." The man called out as he saw the older woman with her lab coat on.

"Yes, General Griffin."

"Come with me."

The woman grabbed her clipboard and followed him out of the building and into the camouflaged truck. She looked over at her boss, wondering if she should ask where they were going. She didn't want to do anything dangerous since she's close to retirement but she knew she had to follow orders, no questions asked. The drive wasn't far but they arrived in the middle of nowhere. She was really confused but just stepped out of the car and followed General Griffin.

"Landing site?" General Griffin asked into the walkie-talkie.

"A few feet from where you are." The man said back. Dr. Wainwright took a few steps back and looked up into the sky. She squinted her eyes to see a small thing of light coming towards her. It looked shiny as it got closer.

"General Griffin." She said, getting the man's attention.

He looked up in the sky and gasped. Both of them ran for cover behind the truck as the object got closer. The ground shook as dirt flew in the air and the wind picked up. General Griffin was knocked off his feet while Dr. Wainwright covered herself with her lab coat.

"Sir, there has been touchdown." The man said from the walkie-talkie not far away from the General.

General Griffin groaned as he moved to grab the walkie-talkie. Dr. Wainwright stood up, still stable with her heels on and dusted off her coat. As General Griffin stood up, he heard Dr. Wainwright gasp. He quickly made his way over to see the woman staring at a shiny metal egg.

"What is it?" He asked. Dr. Wainwright just shrugged before she leaned down to examine it.

"It looks like a shiny space rock." General Griffin commented.

Dr. Wainwright jumped back when a beam of light scanned the piece of metal before it scanned her.

"Definitely not a space rock." Dr. Wainwright told him.

"I wonder what's inside." Right after General Griffin spoke the metal egg seemed to burn a circle from within. Both the Doctor and General took a few steps back as the circle rose from the egg. The circle split in half and moved along the side of the egg revealing a slightly scared, two month old baby. Dr. Wainwright and General Griffin walked up to the egg and when their eyes came in contact with the baby's they gasped.

"Should I call-"

"No, this will be kept between us." General Griffin interrupted her.

"But this is a small child."

"This isn't a child."

"Look at him."

"He looks like a baby but he came from outer space." Dr. Wainwright moved closer and kneeled in front of him.

"Hi." She said as she looked him over.

"...Carlos." General Griffin said.

"Huh?"

"His necklace."

"It's way too big for his size so it must've been given to him...by his family." Dr. Wainwright said, reaching inside and grabbing the picture.

There was a man, a woman, and Carlos. They had a smile on their face as they held the new newborn in their arms. Behind them, there was an oversized plant with a purple waterfall behind them flowing into a lake. It looked like a ritual ceremony of some sort. The woman had on a white flower crown while the man had a white flower Lei. There were white flowers all around there feet and one big on Carlos. Looking closer, Dr. Wainwright could see that the flowers closely resembled Gardenias.

"This must be some sort of birthing ritual ceremony." Dr. Wainwright told the General.

"What do you suggest we do?" The man asked.

"Well, first we need to move him from outside." The General nodded and moved to pick up the egg and gasped when it closed.

"What the?"

"Wait...let me try something." Dr. Wainwright said, stepping forward. The egg opened up again and Carlos looked up at them. Dr. Wainwright nudged General Griffin forward and gasped as the egg closed.

"It only opens to you." General Griffin said and Dr. Wainwright gave him a look before rolling her eyes and taking a step forward, watching the egg open, revealing a smiling Carlos, who giggled a little.

The next time the egg opened Carlos was looking at about thirty different men. Dr. Wainwright stepped around into Carlos' line of sight and the two month old looked up at the woman as she smiled and crouched in front of him.

"Hey, Carlos." The woman said, smiling at the baby boy.

Originally, Dr. Wainwright planned on retiring but all of that changed in the past few hours. Since the egg only opened to her, General Griffin put her in charge of this whole operation. Dr. Wainwright called her daughter's baby sitter and told her that she wouldn't be coming home to tuck in her daughter, Kelly, tonight.

Since the egg only opened to her, she was in command of everyone and her word was to be taken as serious as the President's, if not more. General Griffin had the egg placed in the truck they took out to the site and it was surprisingly light for him. But when he dropped it in the truck, it dropped the truck down as if he put heavy artillery inside. It was shocking to both of them.

Ever since they arrived, there have been men following them, moving at Dr. Wainwright's words. She organized the men to create a room within a box in order for them to study Carlos as he grows. Once the room was set up, Dr. Wainwright had the men bring in Carlos.

As Dr. Wainwright reached inside the carrier to grab Carlos, the machine scanned her hands and released Carlos from his invisible seatbelts. The two month old looked up at the woman as she picked him up and cradled him in her arms. The men grabbed Carlos' carrier and it took five men to hold up the weight of the machine. General Griffin sent it to a nearby room to be examined and Carlos watched as the men were struggling to move the machine out of the room. General Griffin was in a hurry to examine the machine since it increased in weight when Carlos was removed.

"Don't destroy it to examine it." Dr. Wainwright told him before the man left out of the room. Dr. Wainwright held Carlos as she walked into his room the crew finished.

"Don't worry Carlos, you're going to be safe here." The woman said, kissing his forehead and looking around his room.

* * *

 **A/N: I know this first chapter isn't a lot of words but it's just the starter of what I think is a very good story. I mean, already in this chapter, you find out that Carlos is from another planet and why he's come to Earth. I hope you look forward to the next chapter. Thanks for reading! Reviews are much appreciated! :D**


	2. Kendall Knight

**A/N: I was going to update this yesterday like I originally planned but the day got away from me and I didn't want to wait until next Sunday. Well, I hope you all enjoy this chapter of Not From Here! :D**

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"Kendall! James and Logan are here!" Kendall heard his mom say before he was out the door to his bedroom with his book bag on one shoulder.

Today was the day, first day of junior year. He's been looking forward to the end of High School since the beginning and now he's another year closer. Not that it's bad for him or anything, he's just tired of the idiots in his school. Kendall ran down the steps, jumping over two of them before kissing his mother on the cheek and taking the bagged breakfast she made for him, rubbing his baby sister's head.

"Kendall! I just did my hair!" Katie yelled.

"Really? It looks a little messed up to me." The blonde said, sticking his tongue out at her as he stepped out the door.

The three boys had a routine ever since high school started. James would swing past Logan's house, pick him up and get Kendall before heading to school. It took them a while to master the plan because Logan's parents didn't trust James at all and if it weren't for Kendall those two wouldn't be together. Kendall has always been the relationship guy. He's had plenty of failed relationships so he knows what to do in almost any situation. This year was going to be different. He was going to do something about him being single. Granted, he tried that at the end of sophomore year, planning on having the greatest, most romantic summer. That turned into late night gaming with twelve year olds and being the third wheel of the two idiots, now climbing into the backseat.

This was a part of the routine, of course. James picks up Logan, then picks up Kendall, and on the way to school, Kendall drives while James and Logan fool around in the back. Luckily, the fooling around was all just making out and touching. There was only one instance when Kendall had to slam on the breaks when things got a little too much. It was after their first Christmas break apart since they started dating.

Kendall started driving as the all too familiar sound of the two boys making out started. Logan would be the first to moan, then James, then if it's cold outside, jackets are zipped down, followed by the unzipping of jeans if there's been a break, if not, there would be just them moaning back and forth. But that all depends on the day, of course.

Mondays, if they didn't go on a date, there would be the unzipping of items; Tuesdays, making out, regular moans; Wednesdays, making out, intense moans and threats of intense sex after school, since Logan's parents always work late; Thursdays, making out with how much they love each other; Fridays, Kendall just puts in his headphones before he gets into the car, cracks the windows, and take the long way to school.

Mondays and Fridays, just before they pull into the parking lot of the school, Kendall tosses back a box of tissue and a bottle of hand sanitizer. Kendall rolled his eyes as he tosses back the items, cursing to himself for getting so use to their routine. He needed to find someone quick, preferably someone already out so he won't be in James and Logan's situation of sneaking around. Long story short, Logan's parents don't know and he's scared to tell them.

* * *

Kendall walked into his class and he was pretty sure he was the only single one there. Everyone was either talking with someone or making out with them. He spotted one guy, who was sitting there by himself but he was into his book. Kendall sat down at a desk in the front so he wouldn't have to look past the annoying couples to learn. He let out a frustrated sigh when the teacher walked in, smiling on the phone. It's odd that Kendall is the only single guy on the football team. Well, it's odd from someone who doesn't know Kendall very well. All of his jock friends tell him to get with a cheerleader but unless that cheerleader is a guy, he doubted he would want to be with them.

As he was heading to his next class, he bumped into a guy and knocked his books out of his hand by accident. The guy sighed and leaned down to pick up his books. Kendall stopped in the crowded halls and turned to help the guy with his books. When they both stood up, Kendall saw that the boy was crying but before he could say anything, the guy took his books and ran away.

Just as Kendall was about to chase after him, the bell rang, warning him to get to his class. He sighed and made his way to his class. The whole time, he couldn't stop thinking about the crying boy. The weird thing is, he thought he knew everyone at least by who they hung out with. One of the perks of being around footballers and cheerleaders.

"Hey, dude, the teacher said we should work on this together." Guitar Dude said, turning around. Kendall smiled and directed his attention to their paper for the rest of the class. The next time Kendall saw the boy was during lunch.

"Earth to Kendall?" James said, snapping his fingers in his face.

"Yeah."

"You've been out of it since we sat down."

"Sorry."

"Something wrong?"

"I bumped into this guy I've never seen before and he was crying."

"Really?" Logan asked, looking up from his book. Kendall was caught off guard a little because he was sure the small brunette wasn't paying attention.

"Yeah and I wanted to find out what was wrong but he ran away."

"Well that sucks. Maybe he's new." James said, eating his food.

"Must be." There was a silence before anyone spoke. It was more of a gasp and it came from Kendall. Both of the other boys at the table looked up.

"That's him." Kendall told them.

"Yup, he's new, we have class together." James said, looking back at his food.

"What's his name?" Kendall asked, a little too excited.

"I think its Jett."

"Jett!" Kendall called out, shocking the other two boys at the table. The boy looked up, shocked that someone knew his name. He slowly walked over to the table that Kendall was sitting at.

"Yes?" The boy said, shyly.

"I'm Kendall."

"I know, everyone knows Kendall Knight."

"Well, do you know the real me?" Kendall asked and Jett shook his head. Kendall pulled out the chair next to him.

"Come get to know me."

"You don't hate me?"

"W-Why on Earth would you think that?"

"Because I was in your way?"

"You weren't in my way and I would never hate you." Jett smiled and blushed at that. His blush increased when Kendall wrapped his arm around him. Who would've known that today would change both of their lives forever?

* * *

9 Months Later

Kendall strolled into school with James and Logan behind him, holding hands. He smiled as he saw his boyfriend. Jett quickly grew out of his shell and started to socialize with everyone that surrounded themselves around Kendall. With the help of Jett, Kendall was able to make it to football captain with James by his side as co-captain. Logan was the only one who hadn't changed as much in those nine months. He still hadn't come out to his parents yet but he was sure they knew. Every time he was on the phone, they would ask if he was talking to James and would always greet him as well. Kendall wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and squeezed him, resting his hands on the new cheerleading uniform he recently acquired.

"How's my new cheer captain?" Kendall asked, kissing him.

"I'm great. We have practice tonight, will you be there?"

"I think we have a practice too."

"Aww." Jett said, frowning.

"We should get to class." Kendall said, smacking his boyfriend's ass. James and Logan had already headed to class by Logan's request, so Kendall grabbed Jett's hand and they walked through the halls until they got to Jett's class. Kendall gave his boyfriend another kiss before he rushed off to his class.

When it was time for lunch, Kendall and Jett walked in hand in hand and headed straight to their table, where Logan and James were already sitting.

"Hey guys." Kendall said as the both of them sat down.

"James, why don't you want to go?"

"Because it's going to be boring."

"How do you know? You must think everything I do is boring."

"I never said that. Kendall, did I say that?"

"What?" The blonde said, raising his eyebrows to the unexpected question.

"You didn't have to say it, it was implied." Logan said, looking away from James.

"What is this about?" Jett asked.

"Logan wants to go to this field trip and he wants me to go with him."

"The field trip to the science facility?"

"Yeah that one."

"What's the problem with that?" Jett asked.

"It's going to be boring, I just know it."

"You never know, James. I thought going to Jett's cheerleading practices was boring until I went." Kendall told him.

"What?"

"Sorry, I thought it was just going to be jumping and running around. I think they're amazing now that I went."

"Okay, I'll go." James said, kissing Logan on his cheek.

"You should've wanted to go just because I asked."

"I'm sorry." James already knew that it's almost impossible for Logan to stay mad at him. Everyone at the table knew that, so everyone looked at Logan until he turned and kissed James.

"Kendall, you and Jett should come too. It can be like a double date thing." Logan said and James nodded.

"Uh-"

"Come on, you never know, guys. It could be fun." James said, sporting a devilish smile.

"When is it?" Jett asked.

"Saturday at 11."

"Sorry, I have practice for a cheer competition but Kendall can still go." Kendall made a mental note to punish Jett for throwing him under the bus.

"Kendall?"

"Sure, why not." Kendall said, shrugging.

* * *

"Hey, Carlos." Dr. Wainwright said as she held the button to speak. Carlos smiled and waved at the woman through the window as she typed in the password for his room. The door beeped unlock before the elderly woman stepped in, closing it behind her. She walked over to the middle of the room where Carlos was contained before she opened the clear door.

Carlos has been in the clear box since the day he was found and Dr. Wainwright let him pick out the items he wanted in it when he was old enough. He had a gaming system that Kelly, Dr. Wainwright's daughter, brought to him for his birthday, which they chose as the day he arrived on Earth. He also received a double bed when he broke his smaller bed that was placed in the middle of the room. A gaming chair that he can sit in to play the system. There's a rug that's in the front of Carlos' bed that he spent most of his time on coloring or playing board games on with Kelly. There's also a bookshelf with various books and comics Kelly bought him. Dr. Wainwright tried to keep her daughter away from her work but she eventually had to introduce the two when she couldn't find someone to watch Kelly while she worked. Dr. Wainwright used the time that Carlos interacted with Kelly to study how Carlos was around new people. The more time she spent studying him, the more she realized how human he was.

"How are you?" Carlos asked the woman as she entered his room.

"I'm doing fine. How about you?"

"I'm great. Kelly came by earlier and brought me this new game." Carlos said, jumping off his bed to grab the game case. He handed it to Dr. Wainwright and she couldn't help but smile at the boy's excitement.

"It's about the characters I've been reading about in the comic books. They're fighting each other and stuff. It's so cool."

"Injustice: Gods Among Us, huh? Have you been winning?"

"Yeah, but it's kind of hard."

"Well, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it."

"Yeah." Carlos said as another match began.

"Which one are you?"

"I'm Superman."

"Oh, this game is kind of violent. I don't know about you playing this."

"B-But it's not bad for me. Kelly said it herself."

"Okay." Dr. Wainwright watched Carlos as he played the game, hoping it didn't have a violent impact on him.

In the years of studying him, he has been the perfect child. He picked up on things really well. He knows two languages and wanted to learn a third but they didn't have a teacher for another one. General Griffin blames his intelligence on him being from another planet but Dr. Wainwright just thinks Carlos is a smart boy. General Griffin is always quick to remind Dr. Wainwright where Carlos came from. The older woman in her years of studying hadn't found anything out of the ordinary about Carlos. It wasn't until Kelly got into high school that she would start to question her mother's motives with Carlos.

Dr. Wainwright had no intention of letting Carlos into the general public but the boy was quickly learning that there was something beyond the clear walls that enclosed him. So, in agreement with her daughter, Carlos was going to experience the world little by little. Kelly would bring Carlos things from their house or she would go out and buy him things. Dr. Wainwright never really explained all of the holidays to Carlos in fear of him wanting to experience them and leave his room.

During Christmas, Dr. Wainwright would always get up with Kelly and take all of their presents to where Carlos was before they opened them together. Dr. Wainwright traditionally stuck with average clothes and small toys while Kelly would bring him games and brands that he tended to like. General Griffin brought up that Carlos needed a manly figure in his life and tried to be that but he ended up scaring Carlos. Dr. Wainwright suggested that he just stand in the background and continue to help with the studies.

"What do you want for lunch?"

"Um, I don't know."

"Do you want chicken nuggets?" Carlos paused the game and thought about it.

"Yeah but Kelly brought me some different ones from…McDonalds."

"Carlos that stuff isn't really good for you."

"I know but it was so good."

"I'll see if she can bring you some."

"Yay, thank you." Carlos said, giving the woman a hug. She watched him resume the video game before she left and headed to where she left her purse.

As Dr. Wainwright closed the door, she sighed, knowing Carlos eating those unhealthy things weren't good for him but she didn't want to disappoint the boy. She dialed her daughter's number and waited for her to pick up.

"Hey mom."

"Hey Kelly, Carlos told me that you brought him some chicken nuggets from McDonalds."

"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't have lunch and I thought it would be good to get him something besides that food he usually eats and-"

"Kelly, its fine. I was actually calling you to see if you could bring him some more."

"Oh. Sure, I'll be there in a few."

"Thank you."

"No problem." When Dr. Wainwright hung up the phone General Griffin walked in.

"Dr. Wainwright?"

"Yes?"

"The scientists have found something they need you to see." Dr. Wainwright nodded her head before following the General out, glancing back at Carlos playing the video game.

* * *

 **A/N: One thing that I love about this chapter is that I get to introduce Kendall and then show Carlos' environment. It's almost a compare and contrast. I also get to bring up Kendall and Jett's relationship. Thanks for reading and reviews are much appreciated. :D**


	3. Science Facility

**A/N: I like this chapter for many reasons but for the sake of spoiling, I'll say it at the end. Enjoy the chapter! :D**

* * *

Kelly smiled as she turned into the parking lot of McDonalds. She knew Carlos loved their chicken nuggets. She decided to get different sauces this time. When she arrived to the building, she showed her I.D. to the security guard before he lifted the gate, allowing her to drive through.

"Hey, Billy." Kelly said as the man nodded her way while she pulled into the parking lot.

After finding a parking spot, Kelly walked into the building, showing her I.D. again. She walked to the secret door and typed in the password before taking the elevator down to where Carlos was held. The elevator doors opened and she walked down the hallway, turning to where Carlos' room was. She typed in the password to his room and when she walked in she didn't see her mother. She figured she went to go do some work things so she decided to just go give Carlos his food. She typed in the password to the room and smiled when Carlos gasped and jumped out of bed. She walked over to the glass case and opened the door.

"Yay, thank you so much Kelly."

"You know I never disappoint." Kelly said, handing him the bag and his drink.

"I also got you some different sauces." Carlos smiled and pulled the napkins out of the bag, laying them down before pulling out the chicken nuggets and fries. Kelly smiled as Carlos reacted to each different sauce.

"I don't like this one." Carlos said, putting the buffalo sauce back in the bag.

"Why not?"

"It makes my tongue burn."

"Oh, I should've told you."

"Do people actually like that?"

"Yes, actually."

"Why?"

"People actually like the burn."

"That's weird."

"It's not weird. People like their mouths to burn."

"Why?"

"Carlos, I don't know."

"Oh, I like that one." He said, trying the sweet and sour sauce.

"Me too." Kelly said, smiling. The intercom in Carlos' room beeped on and Kelly turned to the window to see her mother standing there.

"Kelly, can you come here for a moment?"

"Sure." Kelly said before she got up, telling Carlos she'll be right back. When Kelly got out of Carlos' room and into the research room, Dr. Wainwright hugged her.

"Mom, is everything okay?"

"Yes, sorry."

"You're lying." Kelly said, looking at her mother's face.

"It's just, they found something in Carlos' blood."

"What do you mean?"

"They don't know what it is and everyone's starting to panic."

"But he seems just fine." Kelly said before she looked at the boy through the window as he ate his food and played his video game.

"They think he might start resisting."

"Resisting what?"

"That's what I said."

"Well, what else did you tell them?"

"I told them that nothing is changing unless I agree to it. Carlos is mine, so they had no other choice but to agree with me."

"Good."

"But Kelly, I'm scared. What if when I die, they decide to take matters into their own hands?"

"Mom, you can't think like that."

"I have to Kelly. We're the only family he has."

"What about his parents in the picture?"

"They could be dead for as far as we know. General Griffin wasn't able to get much out of what Carlos came in. All we know is it's made out of some unknown material."

"So, what are we going to do?"

"I'm going to resist them trying to find out more about Carlos for now and that's all I can do."

"Do you have any idea what could be happening to him?"

"All I know is they want to do a lot of different tests on Carlos that could possibly hurt him."

* * *

"James, hurry up."

"Logan, I am moving as fast as I can." James said as Logan pulled him down the hallway to the bus.

"If I miss this bus-"

"You aren't going to miss the bus."

"You don't know that."

"Logan, it's right there!" James said as Logan pushed open the door to the front of the school. Everyone turned to look at them as they waited to load the bus. "I told you." James said, disconnecting their hands.

"Well, I didn't want to take that chance." James followed Logan as he joined the line of people.

"Where's Kendall?" Logan asked James and he shrugged before texting their friend.

"Where are you?" James sent before he yawned. The fact that they had to get here before school started was ridiculous.

"I'm almost there." Kendall responded and James relayed the message to his worried boyfriend.

"He better not ditch us." Logan said, folding his arms.

"Now, why on Earth would I do that?" Kendall said, walking up to them before he yawned.

"I'm glad you're here."

"I'm tired." Kendall responded to Logan's happiness.

When they got on the bus, James said next to the window while Logan bounced up and down in the seat next to him. Kendall flopped down into his seat and laid his head on the window, trying to recover some type of sleep that he lost while waking up this early. The bus ride to the building was a little longer than expected but Logan was so excited he didn't even notice. Kendall slept half of the way, glancing over at James, who managed to sleep the whole way there. When they finally arrived, Kendall noticed how much security that was around.

"Logan, isn't this a science center?"

"Yeah." He said, smiling before he nudged his boyfriend to wake up.

"So why does it have all of this security?"

"Kendall, this is why I'm so excited. This place just opened as an exhibit but at first it was strictly off limits under military control. Who knows what's in here."

"That's kind of cool." Kendall said, making Logan even more excited.

When the bus pulled to a stop, Logan was one of the first people off the bus even though they were seated in the middle. James sluggishly caught up to his boyfriend while pulling his best friend along. Kendall just laughed at how tired James seemed as they walked up to the building.

"Okay people, we're a high school, which means, don't touch anything or you will be in serious consequences. This facility doesn't take kindly to visitors which is why it's so important that none of you mess this up. We're already banned from several different museums, let's not add this new museum to the list." Everyone nodded their heads and James just laid his head on Logan's shoulder. As they walked into the building, Logan was in the front, squeezing James' hand out of excitement.

"Hello everyone, my name is Dr. Wainwright. I'll be giving you guys the first ever tour of this museum." The woman said before Logan raised his hand. "Yes?"

"Is it true that this use to be a base of operations for a secret government association?"

"Oh, wow, I wasn't expecting that to be my first question of the day."

"I'm sorry, he's just really excited." James told the woman and his boyfriend looked up at him.

"That's fine. This is something really exciting. If you would follow me, I will show you the rest of the exhibit."

"But wait…you never answered my question."

"Maybe." Dr. Wainwright said before she turned and continued walking, smiling as a few people gasped. As they walked through the facility, Logan couldn't stop gasping at everything. James made a point of trying not to groan at everything and actually enjoy himself just because Logan is having a good time. Kendall was in between the two when it came to feelings. Some things he was intrigued while others he just walked pass. When it was time for lunch, all three boys ended up getting the same thing of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. As they ate, James and Kendall listened to how happy Logan was about each thing they were shown.

"I love the fact that they're showing things like old military devices. It's like we're getting to know some secret part of the government."

"I like that about this place too." Kendall said, smiling when his phone vibrated.

"Hey, babe, how are things?" Jett texted him.

"Things are going great. Logan is having a blast and James is clearly only happy because Logan is."

"What about you?"

"I'm actually having fun."

"That's good."

"What about you?"

"We're taking a break because one of the new girls threw up. It was really gross but she at least ran so it wouldn't get on everyone else."

"Is practice that rough?"

"No, she's just weak." Jett texted, making Kendall laugh.

"Lol. I thought you were supposed to be a team."

"We are, she's just weak and everyone's irritating me."

Kendall put his phone back in his pocket before he had to use the bathroom. He walked out of the cafeteria and followed the signs to the bathroom. After he was done using it, he saw that everyone was still having lunch and decided to take another look around. As he looked at one of the exhibits that he liked the most, he saw Dr. Wainwright walking a few artifacts down. Not knowing whether or not he was allowed to walk around made Kendall want to hide. While hiding, he saw that the woman looked concerned. Walking slowly behind her and hiding behind some objects, Kendall followed the woman until she stopped at an elevator. Kendall felt like he was some type of investigator as he watched her type on a key pad the six digit pen number.

"5-9-7-3-1-0." Kendall told himself before he took out his phone and typed the number into the device to save it. The elevator doors opened and Dr. Wainwright walked in and pressed a button. Kendall turned and hid behind the closest object he could find. When the doors closed, Kendall wondered if he should follow the woman before his phone vibrated.

"The rest of the tour is about to start. Where are you?" Logan texted him.

Kendall let out a sigh before he texted back, "On my way."

* * *

Kendall couldn't stop thinking about where Dr. Wainwright went because the second part of the tour was being led by some man who didn't provide as much information as Dr. Wainwright. Logan was even more intrigued on the second half than he was on the first half which James didn't think was possible. Kendall tried to separate himself from the tour but was caught and told to stick with the group. He raised his hand and asked to go to the bathroom. When he was told where it was, he promptly headed there before sneaking his way back to where Dr. Wainwright went. He was about to type in the elevator code when he heard some woman on her phone.

"I'm here now. I know, Mom. Don't worry."

Kendall ducked behind a display as he watched her type in the key code. The elevator doors opened and she stepped in. Kendall wanted to get in with her but he knew she was going to question him. Once the elevator doors closed, Kendall waited a few minutes before he walked over to the door and typed in the code on his phone. When the elevator doors opened, he walked in and looked at the floor section and saw a key card. He cursed to himself before he realized that it was still glowing green. When he pressed the only button on the panel, he took a step back as the doors closed.

As the elevator went down, his heart started beating rapidly. When the doors opened, the woman that was on her phone and Kendall hid before she saw him. Just before the doors closed again, he slid out and watched her turn the corner. Kendall knew he had to stay close to this woman in case there were any more passcodes to type in. He stayed low and followed her around the corner. The woman quickly typed in the password before doors slid open. Kendall didn't see the password so he quickly followed her into the room. She hung up the phone and Kendall hid behind the desk that was nearby, trying to cover his breathing.

"What's going on?" The woman asked someone.

"They took an unauthorized blood dosage from Carlos." An older woman said.

"What?"

"I came here to check on how he was doing and to see if he was hungry and he told me some lab guys showed up and told him he needed to give blood."

"I can't believe this."

"Kelly, where are you going?"

"To speak with General Griffin." The woman said, walking back to the door. Kendall slid further under the desk as he watched both women leave the room. Kendall looked up from the desk to see that no one was in the room. He turned to leave before he heard something hit the floor. He ducked again before he realized that the sound wasn't close enough for someone to see him. He walked from behind the desk and began looking around the circular room. There were computers with what looked like a heart monitor and blood pressure system. It also gave the air conditioning of the room. The screen changed and Kendall saw some guy laying in a bed. He looked over and saw that there were windows looking into another room. He walked over and when he looked in, he saw a boy, around his age, climbing back into a bed with a remote in his hand. He looked on the boy's arm to see he had Band-Aid on his arm.

'Was this the boy they were talking about?' Kendall thought to himself before he stood up more. They had the boy in a giant box. This had to be illegal and why was this in a science facility. Kendall remembered that Logan said that this place use to be a secret military base. Kendall kept looking at the boy, trying to find something wrong with him but came up with nothing. The doors to the room opened up again and Kendall ducked to the right of the machine, staying out of sight.

"Kelly, you can't just go off on him like that."

"He's studying Carlos and you told him not to."

"He's just doing his job?"

"What if he kills him?"

"Kelly, don't be ridiculous."

"Mom, you're being ridiculous!" Kendall peeked out from where he was hiding and saw that the woman was yelling at Dr. Wainwright.

"How about we just see how Carlos is?" Dr. Wainwright said before she typed some number in a keypad and opened the door. Kendall peeked into the window to see the woman walk over to the boy in the middle of the room. She opened the door that was there and the boy seemed to be happy to see her again. She sat on the bed and started talking to him.

* * *

Carlos watched as Dr. Wainwright walked closer to his room and opened the door. The woman looked mad and Carlos was quick to pick up on it. He paused the game and turned to her. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." The woman said, sitting down next to Carlos on his bed. Carlos went back to playing his game and once the mission was over, he turned to see someone was looking at him from the far room. He had never seen that boy before and he quickly climbed out of bed.

"Oh my goodness." Dr. Wainwright said before she climbed off of Carlos' bed. She could see her daughter reach for the emergency gun.

* * *

Kendall was watching as the older woman sat down on the bed with the boy. They talked about something before the boy just focused on the game he was playing. Kendall's eyes widened in shock when the boy looked directly at him and climbed out of bed. Kendall ducked down and prayed that no one else saw him. He heard the sound of a gun being cocked and his heart started pounding.

"Come out with your hands up." Kendall heard a woman say. He put his hands up before he stood up. When he turned to face the woman she glared at him.

"How did you get in here?" The woman asked.

"Kelly, what are you doing?" Dr. Wainwright said coming through the door. When the older woman turned to Kendall she let out a sigh.

"Kelly, lower the gun, this is a student from the tours we've been having." Kelly let out a sigh and lowered the gun.

"How the hell did you get back here?"

"I-I followed her." Kendall said, gesturing to Kelly.

"Kelly, how did you let him follow you?"

"I was worried about Carlos, okay."

"Well, now he's seen a government secret."

"I-I won't tell anyone, I promise." Kendall told them.

"Oh, you're damn right you won't be telling anyone." Kelly said before her mother took the gun from her and put it back in the case. They heard knocking and they all turned to see Carlos was knocking on the door. Kendall turned and looked at Carlos who was staring at him.

"Why is he in there?" Kendall asked them.

"That's none of your business." Kelly told him while Mrs. Wainwright began thinking. Kelly turned to look at her mother and at that moment, she knew exactly what her mother was thinking. "No, Mom."

"No, what?" Kendall asked.

"Be quiet."

"Kelly, he's going to be curious."

"No, Mom. We-"

"Kelly, they've both already seen each other. There's nothing we can do."

"We can tell this kid to leave and never come back."

"That won't solve anything and Carlos will still have questions."

"We can just tell him that it was nothing."

"Kelly, this is my decision, not yours." Kelly groaned and sat in a chair nearby while Kendall just looked back and forth between both women.

"What's going on?"

"What's your name, son?"

"Kendall, Kendall Knight." He told her and she nodded.

"Alright, Kendall. Can I trust you?"

"…Yes."

"Good, because if you tell anyone about this, no one is going to believe you and you'll be in serious trouble with the government." Dr. Wainwright told him, ignoring the groan from her daughter.

"I-I promise you, I won't tell anyone."

"Wasn't it you who said you want to keep him from the outside world?"

"You've already introduced him to McDonalds."

"So! I haven't introduced him to a whole person."

"Kelly, don't fight with me on this." Kendall's heart was racing because his brain wasn't making the connections between the women's conversation. "Kendall, you can't tell anyone what you've seen here today."

"I won't. I swear to you." Kendall said, placing his hand over his heart.

"Okay." The woman said before her phone started ringing. Kendall was eager to know what she was about to say before she was interrupted by her phone. Once the woman got off of her phone she sighed.

"Kendall, can you come back here tomorrow?" Dr. Wainwright asked him and before the last word came out of her mouth, Kendall was nodding his head. "Alright, well, we're going to head back to the group because I'm sure your friends are worried about you." Kendall was slightly disappointed that he had to go back to the group but was interested as to what was going to happen tomorrow. As he followed Dr. Wainwright to the elevator, he wanted to ask the woman a question and she seemed to get that sense.

"Kendall, everything you want to know will be answered tomorrow." She told him as they stepped onto the elevator.

"As for your evasive skills, you should look into the military."

Kendall couldn't help but laugh at her words before he spoke, "I actually find out the passcode to the elevator from following you when I went to the bathroom around lunch time."

"That's pretty sneaky of you. Now, in order for this to work, I need you to make sure no one sneaks in behind you and don't tell a soul about what you've seen."

"I won't but my friends are going to ask where I was."

"I was going to tell you to lie to them but don't worry, I have it covered." She told him and he nodded before the elevator doors opened. They stepped out and headed towards the cafeteria where Kendall saw James and Logan talking in the corner. Both boys spotted the blonde and Logan was the first one to reach him.

"Where were you?" Logan asked him, getting everyone else's attention, including the tour guide who was worried as well.

"Don't worry, Kendall bumped into me and I gave him a him a little tour and we talked about the things he liked." Everyone looked over at Kendall and he just awkwardly smiled before moving to join the rest of the group.

* * *

 **A/N: My favorite apart about this chapter is how both of their world slowly collide and how you can see that Kelly and Dr. Wainwright care about Carlos. I mean, you could kind of see it in the second chapter but I think Kelly's reaction to seeing Kendall was something completely unexpected. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and remember, reviews are much appreciated. :D**


	4. New Friendships

**A/N: No, I'm not dead, just extremely busy. I honestly feel bad that I haven't updated in a while. Don't worry though, things are still going and I'm still typing chapters. They're just progressing rather slowly for some stories. Not to mention, college is beating the crap out of me. Well, enough about me. Here's the 4th chapter of Not From Here. Enjoy! :D**

* * *

"How was the science facility?" Jett asked as he stepped into Kendall's house.

"It was actually fun." Kendall said before he kissed his boyfriend.

"Ew, get a room." Katie said from the couch.

"Shut up Katie." Kendall said, nudging his little sister's head. She swatted his hand away before going back to her show.

"Hey, Katie." Jett said, waving to the girl.

"Hey." Katie said nonchalantly. Kendall rolled his eyes at his little sister's rudeness and grabbed Jett's hand, pulling him up the stairs. When they got to Kendall's room, the blonde wanted to tell his boyfriend about what he saw but he wasn't exactly sure what he saw. Dr. Wainwright hadn't explained anything to him but told him to come back tomorrow. Kendall laid out on his bed, pulling Jett with him.

"So how was practice?" Kendall asked Jett and he groaned in response. Kendall couldn't help but smile at his boyfriend's over dramatic reaction. Jett laid his head on Kendall's chest as he continued to groan.

"I'm guessing it was bad." Kendall said, chuckling.

"Can you make it better?" Jett said, leaning in for a kiss.

"Of course." Kendall said, reaching down to squeeze Jett's ass.

"Kenda- Ew, mom said help her with the groceries." Katie said from the door. Jett rolled off of Kendall and stood up. Kendall laid there for a minute before he sighed, throwing his legs over the edge of the bed and standing up. Both boys headed downstairs to see Mrs. Knight in the kitchen.

"Oh, hey Jett."

"Hey, Mrs. Knight."

"Am I invisible?" Kendall said, out stretching his arms.

"Of course not, hello honey. How was your day?" Mrs. Knight said, giving her son a kiss on the cheek.

"It was actually eventful despite it being a science facility."

"Oh, that was this Saturday?"

"Yes, mom." Kendall said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, can you help me with the groceries?"

"Sure." Both boys helped Mrs. Knight with her groceries before they headed back up to Kendall's room. Kendall laid out on the bed and Jett straddled him.

"Kendall?"

"Yes."

"Do you love me?"

"Why do you ask?" Kendall asked, raising an eyebrow and Jett frowned.

"That means you don't. Your answer was supposed to be immediate."

"No, I was asking you because you obviously have some doubt that I don't love you, so you want some type of confirmation."

"So you do love me?"

"Of course, you love me too right?"

"Yes…but I was thinking about something."

"What?" Kendall asked as his boyfriend blushed.

"We've always had sex at my house but never here."

"Because someone's always here and you aren't exactly quiet."

"I can try."

"We tried that and your Dad almost caught us."

"He wouldn't have done anything."

"So you're telling me he would just be completely fine with someone being balls deep in their son, who they don't even know is gay."

"I'm pretty sure he knows. I mean, I'm a cheerleader and I told my mom. I'd like to think she relayed the message."

"Have you had a talk about me or anything?"

"No, but I told him that you were my boyfriend."

"Yeah, after we almost got caught."

"That's not the point."

"Then what is the point?"

"We never have sex here and I want to get fucked in your bed." Jett said, grinding his hips on his boyfriend.

"Fine but I will cover your mouth if I have to so don't bite me." Kendall said, rolling the two of them over so that Jett was up under him.

"I'll try." Jett said, smirking before connecting their lips.

* * *

Kendall didn't think about how he was going to get to the science facility or what time to show up, so he asked James to take him around eleven o'clock just to be on the safe side. James never really asked questions when it came to weird requests from his best friend but when the blonde asked, the first thing James said to him was a question.

"Why?"

"Because, I have a job interview." Kendall said, happy that he rehearsed everything before he dialed James' number. When James pulled up to the science facility, he watched as Kendall told the man his name before driving to the front of the building. Looking around, James grew slightly nervous since he only saw a few cars in the parking lot.

"Kendall, are you sure this is the right time?"

"Of course. She told me to get here by eleven."

"Okay…when do you want me to pick you up?"

"I honestly don't know but I'll call you when I figure it out."

"Okay." Kendall got out of the car and headed inside of the building.

Walking in, Kendall was a little creeped out by the silence of the building. He walked over to the hidden elevator and typed in the passcode and waited. The doors opened and he pressed the button, watching the doors close soon after. As the elevator went down, Kendall couldn't help think about the things that happened the last time he was here. He couldn't believe that he almost got shot just for sneaking in there. He had so many questions. When the doors opened, Kendall stepped out and walked the same path that he did when he followed Kelly. He didn't know the passcode so he just knocked on the door. The door slid open and Doctor Wainwright smiled at Kendall.

"You're early."

"Well, you didn't exactly give me a time to be here."

"I could've sworn I did."

"It's fine, really."

"Well, okay, Kelly was supposed to explain to you what we're going to do but since you're here early, I'll just explain." Doctor Wainwright said as she gestured for Kendall to step into the room. Kendall looked though one of the windows to see Carlos working on something. "Um, you have to forgive me if I'm a little nervous. The only other person I've ever had to explain this to is my daughter when she was young so obviously this is different. Well, okay, Carlos isn't human. Almost eighteen years ago, Carlos crashed here from some other planet. He's been under government protection since then. The only other person outside of the military personnel that knows about Carlos is my daughter, Kelly and now you."

"Whoa, I don't know if that's scary or cool."

"It's a little bit of both but you have to know that this is a top secret thing and I cannot express how important it is for you to keep this to yourself."

"Oh, I completely understand. I had to tell my best friend that this was a job interview."

"That's good, we can work with that. I can get you an I.D. and everything. Great thinking."

"Thanks." Kendall said, smiling before he turned to see Carlos looking confused at the paper. Doctor Wainwright gestured for Kendall to follow her out of the room. Kendall followed her down the hall across from Carlos' room and into another room where two men are examining an egg looking thing.

"Carlos arrived in this pod which we have yet to figure out the origin. All we know is that he has or at least had a family. He showed up with a necklace with his name on it and a picture of his parents holding him." Dr. Wainwright said before she turned back around and exited the room.

"Now, you're probably wondering why we didn't turn you in to the police for trespassing."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I was just curious."

"Well you got me thinking about how Carlos sees the world. He doesn't know much besides what I've allowed Kelly to share with him and what Kelly told him without my permission. I've brought you here to show him more things since Kelly is busy with other things."

"That sounds cool."

"Are you in any extracurricular activities at school that might interfere with your time here?"

"Well, I'm the captain of the football team."

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah."

"How did you end up at a science facility on a Saturday?"

"My best friend, Logan, wanted to go and he dragged me and his boyfriend, James along."

"Oh, so guilt or persuasion?"

"A little bit of both, actually."

"Good, you seem like a nice enough boy. Do you want to officially meet Carlos?"

"Of course."

"I'll be observing you two today but I won't be here every day." Dr. Wainwright said as she typed in the passcode.

"I'll also give you a complete list of access codes that you'll need to know for when I'm not here."

"Alright." Kendall said as he walked into the room after Dr. Wainwright. Being in an all-white room was a little weird for Kendall and he looked around to see that there wasn't much to look at besides the windows. He couldn't imagine how he could live here for years. When Kendall actually looked in front of him, he saw Dr. Wainwright open the clear door before the two of them entered Carlos' room. Carlos sat on his bed, staring at Kendall.

"Carlos, this is Kendall, he's going to be hanging out with you. Is that okay?"

"Is he going to play games with me and stuff?"

"Yeah, I mean, if you want." Kendall said and Carlos smiled. Dr. Wainwright nodded at the two of them before she walked to the door. Kendall smiled awkwardly before Carlos climbed off of the bed and went over to his Tv. He changed the channel to the game channel while Kendall was mesmerized by the size of the flat screen.

"Are you good at games?" Carlos asked.

"Of course. I might be a little rusty since I haven't played in a while but I'm good once I get back to it. Can I sit here?" Kendall asked, gesturing to the gaming chair Carlos had. Carlos nodded and handed Kendall a controller.

"Have you ever played the game Injustice: Gods among us?"

"Only a million times."

"Really? Who's your favorite character?"

"Nightwing. Yours?"

"I really like Catwoman."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she's pretty awesome."

"Indeed, she is."

Once the game started and they both picked their favorite characters and began fighting. Kendall was actually impressed with how good Carlos was playing. Normally, people would complain about how Kendall was moving too fast with Nightwing but Carlos was basically doing the same thing with Catwoman. Kendall did notice a few things that Carlos did that he could've capitalized on and beat him but he figured that he should take it easy.

When Kendall made his character jump in the air, Carlos used Catwoman's whip to hit him while he was mid-air, winning the match. Kendall applauded Carlos for his gaming skills and Carlos tried to hide his smile as he blushed. After so many matches, both boys lost count at how many matches that they played. Things didn't stop until Carlos defeated Kendall again and he sat the controller down.

"No one has ever played with me for this long. Normally, my friend, Kelly, would give up after a few games."

"I love games. Do you have any other games?"

"I don't have many because Kelly says that they're too violent. She only got me Injustice because I read about the heroes in comic books. Do you have any games?"

"I have a lot but I don't know if I can bring them here." Kendall said before he looked over at one of the windows. Dr. Wainwright looked up at him and shrugged before looking back down at whatever she was doing.

"I have some board games too, if you like those." Carlos mentioned and before Kendall could respond Carlos was already off of the bed, reaching underneath bringing out several board games. Kendall was surprised at how many board games Carlos actually owned once he stopped pulling them out.

"Do you have a favorite?" Kendall asked as he stood up, looking at all of the different games.

"I like…um, Scrabble because Kelly teaches me new words sometimes."

"We can play that."

"Awesome." Carlos said and as he set up the game Kendall couldn't see how Carlos was different from anyone else besides where he came from. To Kendall, Carlos seemed like an everyday ordinary person.

"I guess that would be the work of Dr. Wainwright." Kendall thought to himself. As they played, Kendall used basic words that he made work while Carlos was creating words that Kendall wasn't sure was even a word.

"Jam." Kendall said as he placed the letters down. Carlos thought for a moment as he looked down at his letters.

"Enjambment."

"Oh, come on. That's not a word."

"Mhm, yes it is." Carlos said before Kendall folded his arm, looking down at the board. Carlos got up and went over to his bookshelf, pulling out a dictionary. He opened it to the word and pointed it out to Kendall.

"How are you so good at this?"

"Kelly and I play all of the time and I like to read some parts of the dictionary to learn new words." Kendall didn't know what to say. Carlos literally has so much time that he has read parts of the dictionary.

"You don't read parts of the dictionary?"

"No, I have other things to do."

"What if you don't know a word?"

"I just use a different one or look it up on my phone."

"Your phone?" Carlos asked, looking up at Kendall. Kendall was about to continue but he noticed Carlos look pass him. Kendall turned around to see some guy standing behind Dr. Wainwright.

"I don't like him." Carlos whispered under his breath and Kendall had to struggle to actually hear what Carlos had said.

"Who is he?" Kendall asked.

"General Griffin." When the man looked up at the two of them, his eyes widened in shock before he seemed to yell at Dr. Wainwright. Kendall climbed off the bed and Carlos wanted to stop him but he knew that it's rude to touch people without asking them for permission.

"Boy, get out here, now!" General Griffin yelled over the intercom, scaring both boys in the room. Kendall opened the door to the room, turning to look at Carlos, who looked terrified, before closing the door behind him. Kendall walked over to the security door before it was pushed open and he was dragged out by the front of his shirt.

"Have you lost your mind, boy?"

"No-"

"Then wh-"

"General Griffin, let the boy go!" General Griffin looked from Kendall to Dr. Wainwright before he let go of Kendall's shirt.

"Dr. Wainwright, I've been trying to be lenient with you but this is just out right-"

"You said that Carlos is changing. After you took that unauthorized dosage, I took it upon myself to continue studying Carlos' actions with a new test subject. So far, Carlos hasn't shown any sign of changing."

"You're taking a risk that you can't afford to take."

"It's already been taken. You can't change that now." General Griffin looked really pissed about that and when he turned to Kendall, the boy took a few steps back.

"I won't tell anyone. I promise." He said, while doing so.

"Good because if you do, you're not going to live longer to tell a second person."

"General Griffin, you're not allowed to threaten him."

"I'm allowed to do whatever the hell I want to do."

"Not when it comes to Carlos and if you ever do something that I didn't authorize, I will have you banned from this facility."

"You can't ban me from-"

"Try me." Dr. Wainwright told him. General Griffin huffed out several breaths before he walked up to Dr. Wainwright and got in her face.

"Carlos is not human and if you want to put a child's life in danger then go right ahead but when Carlos kills him, don't come crying to me." Dr. Wainwright glared at the General as he left the room. Kendall sat there in slight shock from his seat he'd taken after he spoke. He didn't know what to make up of the situation that just happened, mainly what General Griffin had said.

"That man is driving me insane."

"Was he…right?" Kendall asked the woman.

"Mr. Knight, you've been in the same room as Carlos, you know that he faces no immediate threat to you. In fact, I think the two of you are becoming fast friends. Please don't listen to anything General Griffin has to say about Carlos. He's just trying to overthrow my position so he can do more advanced testing on Carlos."

"Oh." Kendall said before his stomach growled and there was knock on the clear wall from where Carlos was located. Both Kendall and Dr. Wainwright looked through the window to see Carlos standing there with a frown on his face.

"I'm hungry." Carlos said and it was heard in the room where Dr. Wainwright and Kendall stood.

"Okay, Kendall is going to go get you and him something to eat." Dr. Wainwright told Carlos after she pressed the intercom button.

"Do you know how to drive?"

"Yes." Kendall said, proudly.

"Good, can you go out and get something for you and Carlos to eat?"

"What can he eat?"

"He hasn't had much besides the cafeteria food and McDonalds. I think today is special so you can decide what to get him, just make sure it isn't so unhealthy."

"I'm on it." Kendall said before he was given the keys to Dr. Wainwright's car. He was a little too eager to get something to eat but then again, he was getting food for him and Carlos, who's an alien.

As he exited the room, he saw General Griffin talking to someone who nodded their head and walked away from the glaring man. Kendall ignored his glare and stepped passed him and onto the elevator. He rode it up and exited the building, quickly finding Dr. Wainwright's car. He sat there for a moment trying to decide what he should introduce Carlos to. There were so many fast food options in town that he's sure Carlos would love.

In the end, he decided to go with the classic lunch of pizza. He used his phone to order the pizza before he pulled out of the parking lot. The security guard gave him an odd look but didn't say anything.

* * *

 **A/N: What I love about this chapter is how Dr. Wainwright is slowly letting Carlos get a look at the outside world ever since she let Kendall join their little group, despite the disapproval of General Griffin. Anyways, until next time (really really soon)! Reviews are much appreciated and thank you for reading. :D**


	5. Pizza & Fun

**A/N: Another update for this story. I hope you all enjoy it. I've been trying to get this whole updating thing under control but college has taken over my entire life. But nevertheless, this chapter is here, so enjoy! :D**

* * *

When Kendall arrived at the pizza place, he was surprised to see as many cars as he did. "There must be some birthday or something." Kendall thought to himself before he entered the store. He walked up to the counter and was told that his pizza was almost ready. As he sat in the chair, waiting, he got a text message to his phone.

"Hey, cutie." Kendall smiled down at the text from his boyfriend.

"Hey, babe."

"So, why are you sitting there? Come over and say hi to my parents." Kendall immediately sat up from his slouched position and looked around the pizza place before he saw his boyfriend and his parents sitting in a booth. Jett slid over and patted the seat next to him, smiling.

"Hey, babe." Kendall said, kissing his boyfriend on the cheek. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Stetson."

"Hello Kendall." Mrs. Stetson said with a smile. Mr. Stetson looked like he didn't want to say anything but he forced out a hello, which Kendall didn't see as bad as Jett saw it as.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were at work?"

"I technically still am, I just have to make a lunch run."

"Ah, the untrained intern sent on an assistant's job of getting the lunch." Mr. Stetson said and everyone at the table looked at the man in slight annoyance while Kendall just smiled at the man.

"Actually, Mr. Stetson, I volunteered to go on this lunch run to show my loyalty towards the people that I work with and to show that I can be a trustworthy employee. Speaking of which, I think they just said my number." Kendall said before he stood up.

"It was nice seeing you all."

"Wait." Jett said, pulling Kendall back down to sit next to him before he turned the blonde's head, kissing him.

Kendall was about to pull away but Jett wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's neck and deepened the kiss. Kendall knew why Jett randomly decided to kiss him and he couldn't help but smirk. When they broke apart, Kendall leaned over and pretended to whisper something in Jett's ear to which his boyfriend started smiling. Kendall slid out of the booth and glanced at Mr. Stetson to see an uneasy look on his face. Once Kendall got his pizza, he left the store and headed back to the silence facility. He tried to park the car as exact as he could before he looked in the mirror to make sure that his kiss with Jett didn't show. Kendall grabbed the pizza and headed inside, putting in the passcode to the elevator and taking it to the only floor available.

"Pizza, good choice." Dr. Wainwright said when Kendall walked in. Kendall was about to walk to the door but Dr. Wainwright stopped him by holding up her hand. She grabbed a roll of paper towels and walked over to Kendall, handing him the roll. When Carlos saw Kendall he smiled and waved at the boy. Kendall couldn't help but smile back before he balanced the pizza in one hand and opening the door with the other.

"That's smells good." Carlos said as Kendall sat the box down on the bed.

"It tastes good too."

"Thank you." Carlos said, wrapping his arms around Kendall's mid-section. The hug caught Kendall off guard but he returned the hug before Carlos took a step back.

"I'm sorry. I know I'm supposed to ask for your permission first."

"Don't sweat it, dude. It's cool."

"Huh?" Carlos asked in confusion.

"Uhh, I mean, don't worry about it."

"Oh, did you come up with that yourself?"

"No." Kendall said, laughing a little. "It's a popular saying."

"Do you know where it came from?"

"Well, when someone worries about something, they can start to sweat."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"Yeah." Kendall said opening the pizza box. "This is pizza. The toppings are pepperoni and sausage."

"I've seen this before but I've never tasted it."

"It's really good. Try some." Kendall said, getting a paper towel and handing it to Carlos. Carlos used the paper towel and picked up the pizza slice just like Kendall did.

"Be careful it's hot." Kendall told him. Carlos bit into the pizza and was surprised by how good it tasted.

"Oh my goodness." Carlos said, holding his hand over his mouth. Kendall thought he saw something in Carlos' mouth that was shiny but he shook it off when he realized he was looking in Carlos mouth.

"It's good right?" Kendall asked and Carlos nodded, taking another bite. Kendall was happy that he made the right choice. After they finished most of the pizza, Carlos laid out on his bed.

"Thank you, Kendall."

"You're welcome." Kendall said, sliding the pizza box over so he wouldn't accidentally hit knock it off the bed. They sat there in silence and Kendall just looked at Carlos laying there. The boy didn't have anything wrong with him. Kendall was having a hard time believing that the boy was an alien.

At first he thought that maybe Carlos had an immune problem but that obviously wouldn't be the case. Kendall also wanted to know what changed about Carlos that has General Griffin worried. He looks like a regular boy and Dr. Wainwright seems to think the same thing but she also knows that something is changing. Kendall pulled out his phone when it vibrated and he was surprised that he actually had service down here. He saw that it was a text from James.

"Hey, when do you get off so I can come pick you up?"

"I don't know but I will let you know when I find out." Kendall texted back.

"What are you doing?" Carlos asked.

"Texting." Kendall said, looking up from his phone to see Carlos sitting there with his legs folded over each other. Kendall could see the interest written over Carlos' face so he moved next to the boy, letting him hold his phone.

"Kelly doesn't let me see her phone when she's texting."

"Well, I don't have anything to hide." Kendall said before a text came in and Carlos jumped at the vibration.

"It's just the vibration to let me know I have a text message." Kendall said, holding Carlos' wrist so the boy wouldn't throw his phone.

"Oh." Carlos said as Kendall took the phone from him.

"Keep me updated." James texted back.

"Will do." Kendall sent with an emoji.

"What's that?" Carlos asked.

"Oh, that's an emoji. They're little pictures that helps you show emotion or simplify things that you're trying to say."

"What does that mean?"

"It's a symbol meaning okay. See." Kendall said, making the hand gesture.

"Oh." Carlos said, imitating the hand gesture.

"Are there any more?"

"Of course." Kendall said, going to the emoji section in his phone before handing it to Carlos.

"Cool." Carlos said, looking at all of the little pictures.

"Use your thumb to scroll down and you can click different sections." Kendall told him and Carlos looked at him in confusion.

"Push up on the screen using your thumb." When Carlos did as Kendall said, he let out a small gasp that made Kendall smile. As Carlos went through the emojis, Kendall explained what each of them meant. Carlos was happy that he knew what some of them were. After Kendall showed Carlos all of the emojis, they decided to play more video games. When it was time for Kendall to leave, he texted James to come get him before he said goodbye to Carlos. As Kendall waited for James, he decided to talk to Dr. Wainwright about Carlos.

"Dr. Wainwright. How did you guys even find Carlos?"

"Well, we were looking for government authorized things when one of the men on the crew pointed out that something was headed towards Earth. General Griffin grabbed me and asked me to go with him. We were close friends until General Griffin refused to acknowledge that Carlos was fairly normal. He kept talking about how normal people don't fall from the sky and he's been looking for something different about Carlos since he got here."

"So what was he talking about when he said that Carlos could kill me?"

"Don't listen to him about that. Carlos wouldn't hurt a fly."

"But what makes him think that?"

"He's just trying to scare you because he doesn't think you should be here. He has trust issues."

"So, how did you become in charge when it came to Carlos?"

"I was the first one to reach Carlos and his pod scanned me so it only opened when I was in front of it. I was the only one able to take Carlos out which made General Griffin put me in charge of everything dealing with Carlos."

"But…you said he took an unauthorized dosage. What does that mean?"

"Kendall, you know, you ask too many questions."

"I'm just curious, that's all." Kendall said before Dr. Wainwright moved away from the window where Carlos could see her. She moved to one of the computers and started typing.

"We've been studying every part of Carlos ever since his birth." Kendall smiled when baby Carlos showed up on the screen looking around. Kendall could see that they can see Carlos' heart rate from where he was and as Dr. Wainwright moved through the footage. Kendall watched as Carlos grew up and how his room has changed over the years. Kendall loved that he could see Kelly go through her awkward teen years before becoming more of the woman she is today.

"Now, here's a few days ago when General Griffin took the unauthorized dosage." Kendall watched as the man entered with two other guys. Carlos looked scared as he put his controller down.

"Not only did they take an unauthorized dosage; they took way over the limit." Dr. Wainwright told Kendall as she spun around in her chair to face him.

"He's an asshole." Kendall said under his breath as he watched them take Carlos' blood on the monitor.

"Yeah." Dr. Wainwright said before Kendall's phone began ringing.

"Alright, Dr. Wainwright. My ride is here."

"Okay Kendall, see you tomorrow at around twelve."

"Twelve, got it." Kendall said before he left the room and headed for the elevator.

* * *

"That's right, Knight!" Coach Rocque yelled and Kendall couldn't help but smile around his mouth piece. Kendall just threw the perfect pass to one of his teammates. Although this was only practice, Coach Rocque was still excited for some reason.

"I can only imagine how he's going to be during the game." One of Kendall's teammates said.

"Like how he always is. Stressed out, screaming, looking like his head is about to explode with every tackle."

"You remember when he almost threw his clipboard at one of the referees." Kendall couldn't help but laugh alongside his teammates as he thought back to that game. It had been almost a week since Kendall met Carlos. Dr. Wainwright told Kendall that during the week he didn't have to come in unless he wanted to but on the weekends, if he didn't have practice, he was expected around twelve.

"Guys look alive, cheerleaders coming to practice too." One of Kendall's teammates said as he ran up to them. Kendall turned to see his boyfriend walking over to them with his cheer squad behind him.

"You know; I will never understand how they expect us to practice when they're practicing nearby."

"It's called self-control." James said coming up to the guys, nudging the one who last spoke in the head.

"You wouldn't be saying that if your boyfriend was here." The teammate responded to James and he was about to say something back but the cheerleaders had reached to where they were standing. Kendall took out his mouth piece and took off his helmet before wrapping his arms around Jett and kissing him.

"Mmm." Jett moaned after their kiss ended. The rest of the cheer team were being hit on by the football team while James just shook his head at all of them.

"I don't know how I'm going to concentrate on these plays when you're wearing these short shorts." Kendall whispered to his boyfriend.

"Well, just imagine taking them off of me."

"I doubt that's going to help."

"It will when I tell you that's what your reward will be." Jett said and Kendall smirked before he hugged his boyfriend, biting his ear.

"I can't wait." Kendall said before James was standing directly next to them.

"Can we get back to practice?" James asked with a blank look on his face. Kendall sighed before giving Jett one last kiss.

"You're so whipped." James said once Jett was gone.

"I am not whipped. You'd be the same way if Logan was on the cheerleading team."

"He would never go for something like that."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know my boyfriend and he's more of a-"

"A nerd."

"No, he's a mental person."

"Oh, so…nerd."

"Kendall he-"

"Don't worry James, being a nerd is cool but you never get a view like that." Kendall said, looking as his boyfriend started stretching, leaning down to the ground.

"Actually, when Logan's in the lab, he does a lot of bending over the table."

"Okay, we're done here." Kendall said, putting on his helmet and walking away from James who started laughing. Once practice was over, all of the guys headed into the showers and started getting ready to head home.

"You know Knight; I don't get it."

"What?" Kendall said, looking up from the bench he was straddling as he unlaced his shoes.

"You seem to be the main one focused while your boyfriend was practically naked out there."

"It's called self-control." James said, walking pass and poking the guy in the head, prompting him to slap James' hand away from his head.

"Well, I mean. I was just focused on the game. I knew he was trying to distract me."

"Really?" Another teammate said sarcastically from behind Kendall. "I mean after you threw like, what, the sixth perfect pass, he took off his shirt."

Kendall couldn't help but laugh along with the guys in the locker room. Kendall remembers when he first told them that he was gay. It was right after they made him and James co-captains. Most of the team stated that they already knew and didn't care because he was amazing on the field while other made a joke about him being gay is the reason why he's so good with handling balls. Overall the response was generally positive. If there was anyone on the team who had a problem with it, they either didn't say anything or stopped being on the team.

"Uh oh, speak of the devil." One of the teammates said from a different section of the locker room. Kendall couldn't help but smile as he took off his practice shoulder pads along with his shirt. Jett came in with a tank top and shorts on with his cheering bag on his shoulder.

"Hey, babe." Kendall said, kicking off his cleats.

"Hey." Jett said, straddling the bench in front of Kendall. "We're you all talking about me?" Kendall couldn't help but laugh slightly as the guys slowly moved around the lockers to another row.

"Yeah but it was all good fun, trust me."

"What was said?"

"The guys wanted to know how I stayed so focused while you were practicing."

"And what did you tell them?" Jett asked in slight shock, making Kendall smile.

"Just that I was really focused and I knew you were trying to distract me."

"I wasn't."

"Really, babe. I mean, you did take your shirt off very seductively."

"I was hot."

"Right." Kendall said, standing up.

"So what are you going to do after you change?" Jett asked, moving so he was sitting properly.

"Nothing, probably just go home and do some homework." Kendall said putting his jersey in his locker. "Why?"

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to do some homework over at my place." Jett asked, leaning up against the locker next to Kendall.

"Sure, just let me shower an-"

"We can shower at my place." Jett said with a smirk. Kendall had a smirk of his own before he quickly changed out of the rest of his clothes.

When he barely had his shoes on, Jett grabbed his hand and pulled him to the exit of the locker room. Kendall barely had the chance to close his locker on the way out and the rest of the team knew what was going on since Kendall usually takes a shower before he left. One of his teammates started thrusting in the air while another one whistled at the couple. Jett just rolled his eyes while Kendall playfully stuck his tongue out at them before being pulled out of the room.

* * *

 **A/N: I wonder what you guys think about Jett and his relationship with Kendall. I think it's cute, typical high school love. Well, until next time. Thanks for reading and a review would be much appreciated. :D**


	6. Changes

**A/N: I love this story so much and I've got so many good things planned for this. I don't have much else to say besides that, so, enjoy this chapter! :D**

* * *

Carlos woke up with a smile on his face. He's been doing that a lot recently, more-so on the weekends more than anything. He was excited because he gets to see Kendall again. He wondered what Kendall was going to bring today or what they were going to do. When the lights in the facility came on, Carlos was paying more attention, waiting to see someone.

When the door opened, Carlos jumped out of his bed but gasped when he saw that it was General Griffin. The General had a smile on his face as two men walked in behind him. Carlos knew what was going to happen and he remembered how he felt the last time. As the door to his room opened, Carlos moved closer to the opposite side of the room.

"Carlos, we just need to take another sample." General Griffin told him.

"I-I-Sh-She said th-that I can't." Carlos said, as he backed into the corner.

"Carlos, don't make us have to hold you down."

"Y-You don't have to do that." Carlos said as he sniffled, walking over to the General.

"Glad, you made the smart choice." The General said as the two guys pulled out their equipment. Carlos could see that they had their regular equipment but also had some other things.

"Wh-What is that?" Carlos asked, pointing to the machines.

"Don't worry about it." General Griffin told the boy and Carlos nodded as a tear fell onto his cheek. One of the men looked at the General and he gestured for them to continue. As one of the men grabbed the needle, he held Carlos' arm. Carlos let out a shaky breath and the man looked at him.

"I'm going to need for you to stay still."

"Hurry up!" General Griffin yelled and Carlos jumped at the loud deep voice.

"Okay, I know you're scared but this will go smoothly if you just stay still for a second."

"I-I-Okay." Carlos said, holding his breath as more tears fell. Carlos let out a small sob as the needle approached his arm before the lights in the room cut off. The only light was coming from the control room and Carlos didn't know what to do as a voice sounded over the intercom.

"General Griffin, leave Carlos' room and take those two men with you." Dr. Wainwright told the man.

"I am not taking any chances, so we need another blood sample." General Griffin said, folding his arms.

"That equipment is not for just a blood sample."

"Dr. Wainwright I-"

"General Griffin, order your men to move away from Carlos or I will be forced to remove you and them from the facility immediately." General Griffin didn't move for a second before he gestured for his men to follow him.

He opened the door and Carlos scooted back to the headboard of his bed as the men exited his room. The lights were turned back on and Carlos covered his eyes at the sudden brightness. Once the men were completely out of sight, Carlos looked towards the control room to see what was going on but quickly gave up when he remembered that he wouldn't be able to hear them. As General Griffin walked back into the control room, Dr. Wainwright moved in her chair to look at the General.

"What happened to our code of ethics?"

"Dr. Wainwright, those code of ethics were gone the second we found an abnormality in his blood." General Griffin told the Doctor as the last man closed the door.

"Something that he doesn't need to be aware of." Dr. Wainwright reminded him.

"You keep playing house but one day that boy in there is going to turn into something you've only seen in movies. And you know what always happens to the Doctor who's been watching them." General Griffin said before he turned to the door. "They die."

Dr. Wainwright shook her head at the General as he left. She couldn't' believe that the man was starting to lose his mind. She's fully aware of what Carlos is, she's fully aware of what's going on inside of Carlos, but she's just doesn't know what exactly that is. Dr. Wainwright stood up from her chair and walked into where Carlos was. When she walked into his room, Carlos wrapped his arms around her and she held him while she sat on the bed. Dr. Wainwright rubbed Carlos back and could tell that the boy was crying.

"Everything's going to be okay." Dr. Wainwright told him. For a moment she wondered if she was speaking more to herself than she was to Carlos.

* * *

Kendall sat on his bed, looking around his room. Ever since he woke up, he wondered what he could introduce Carlos into. He had no idea what he could actually teach the boy that Dr. Wainwright would approve of. Kendall heard the sound of a horn and knew that it was James. He grabbed his bag and put his laptop in it before he grabbed a few different DVDs.

"Hey, James." Kendall said, getting into the car. Once he made it to the facility, Kendall made his way to Carlos as his phone rang. Kendall was surprised to see that it was Jett calling him. His boyfriend usually doesn't call him until later during the day.

"Hey babe." Kendall said, answering the phone.

"Hey, Kendall."

"What's up?"

"Can we go on a date?"

"Sure, when?"

"Now."

"I can't do now. I have work, you know that."

"You can call off."

"Considering I'm already in the building, I doubt that is an option." Kendall said, frowning at his boyfriend's sigh as he stepped out of the elevator.

"What about tomorrow?"

"I can see if I can take off tomorrow."

"Okay, let me know."

"Alright."

"Bye."

"Bye." Kendall said before he hung up and walked into where Carlos was. When Kendall walked in, he could tell there was a change in the atmosphere. Dr. Wainwright wasn't looking at him and despite him standing there for a while, she had yet to turn to him.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Wainwright."

"Good afternoon, Kendall." The Doctor said, not turning Kendall's way.

"Is it okay if I show Carlos some movies today?"

"That's perfectly fine." Kendall wanted to ask what was wrong but he just decided to let it go. He opened the door and stepped in, walking over to Carlos' room. He could see through the clear walls that Carlos was sitting curled up with his controller in his hand. When Kendall walked in, Carlos jumped and managed to drop his controller off the bed.

"I'll get it." Kendall said before he went over and picked up the controller. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay." Carlos said, taking the controller from Kendall. Kendall sat down on the bed next to Carlos and watched the boy play the game. He was doing kind of bad during each match and barely won. Kendall noticed this when there were several times that Carlos could've capitalized on the situation. Carlos sighed when he lost a game and Kendall took off his book bag.

"Hey, Carlos, I brought some movies."

"Movies? What kind?" Carlos said perking up a little. Kendall smiled as he reached into his bad and brought out all of the DVDs he brought.

"Most of them are Marvel movies but some of them are movies that I think you might like." Kendall said as he spread the movies out, separating the Marvel movies from the rest of them.

"What's this one about?" Carlos said, pointing to Ironman.

"Well, this one is about a millionaire who becomes a super hero. I can't really tell you much about it without spoiling it."

"Spoiling it?"

"It's when you tell someone about the movie before they see it."

"Oh."

"This is one of the first Marvel movies, do you want to watch it?"

"Sure." Carlos said and Kendall put the rest of the movies back in his bag before putting the movie in Carlos' Playstation.

As the movie started, Carlos and Kendall both laid parallel to each other while on their stomachs. As they watched the movie, Kendall was pretty excited to see Carlos' reactions to the things going on in the film. By the end of the movie, Carlos was sitting on the edge of his bed in shock. When the credits started to roll, Carlos turned to Kendall but the blond held up his hand and pointed to the Tv.

"One rule of a Marvel movie is that there's always more after the credits." Kendall said before the ending scene started. Once it was done, Carlos turned to Kendall confused.

"What's the Avengers Initiative?"

"Ironman is a part of the Avengers which is a group of superheroes."

"Wait, are these comics?" Carlos asked and Kendall nodded.

"Oh, yeah. I remember Kelly asked me about which one I wanted, I think the options were Marvel or D.C and I picked D.C."

"That explains why you have Injustice but didn't know what Marvel movies were."

"So there are comics with these characters?"

"Yeah but there's so many, I don't even know where to start. One of my friends is obsessed with them but I just stick with the movies."

"Oh, so is there more?" Carlos asked in excitement.

"Of course, there's at least ten other movies. Most of them just lead up to the first Avengers movie and then there's some that come between the first Avengers movie and the second Avengers movie." Kendall said, smiling as Carlos practically beamed at him.

"What's the next movie?" Carlos asked Kendall in excitement.

"Ironman 2." Kendall told him.

"Does it talk more about the Avengers?"

"Uh, not really so much. Yeah, Marvel didn't seem like they were sure about everything back then."

"Really?"

"Yeah, or at least that's what it seemed like to me." Kendall said before he put the next movie in and settled back on Carlos' bed.

* * *

Kendall knows that he has many moments that he could say he was proud of but, teaching Carlos about the Marvel movies has to be the top of his list. Every day that he would spend with Carlos, he would spend it with the boy either watching Marvel movies or talking about it. Kendall found it nice that Carlos was willing to wait until the next time that Kendall came over before he would watch Avengers 2. Kendall didn't want to keep the boy waiting so when he woke up, he quickly got dressed and called James. What he wasn't expecting was for Jett to show up at his house when he was waiting for James.

"Why do you look so shocked to see me?" Jett said when Kendall opened the door.

"Well, you know I have work."

"Again? You can't call out sick, you've been going so much."

"Jett, it's a job. I have to go when I'm scheduled." Kendall said, laughing a little.

"Not if you suddenly got sick."

"Can't. I already called James."

"Well, call him back and tell him not to come."

"Jett, I-"

"Fine. Fine, but still call him. I'll take you."

"Well, usually James takes me an-"

"Is me taking you a problem?" Jett asked, slightly upset.

"No, of course not but James is already o-" Kendall stopped talking when Jett took his phone and called James.

"James, you don't have to take Kendall to work." Jett said and Kendall just knew that his best friend was going to be upset with him. Jett went back and forth with James on the phone and Kendall just sat there and watched, knowing that if he stopped his boyfriend things would be made worse. When Jett hung up with James, he smiled at Kendall before turning on his heels.

"Come on, let's get you to work."

"On a scale of one to ten, how mad is he?"

"I don't know, I hung up before he could yell more." Jett said, pulling open the front door and walking out. Kendall let out a small sigh and thought of ways that he could repay James after this. Hopefully Jett didn't mess up his rides to work, otherwise, the brunette would be taking him to work from now on. Once they got into Jett's car, Kendall got a little nervous. Jett had never been to his job before and he's never been inside the science facility. He was bound to be curious as to what's inside.

"So, what exactly do you do at work?"

"Well, I basically do anything they have me do for the day so it pretty much depends on what needs to be done." Kendall told him before directing him closer to the building. When they reached the security guard, Kendall leaned over and smiled at the guy. He seemed annoyed as he opened the gate.

"Wait, if this is a science facility, why is there a guard?"

"There are people who aren't allowed on the premises, so he's there for that." Kendall was actually surprised at how cool he was acting about this situation considering he was practically shitting himself.

"Thank you." Kendall said quickly the second Jett pulled to a stop.

Kendall was inside the building before Jett could say anything else. The second the elevator opened on Carlos' floor, Kendall could tell something was off. He made his way to Carlos' quarters and when he opened the door, the feeling that something was off increased tremendously. Kendall closed the door behind him and when he did, Kelly jumped up from where she was and was aiming a gun at him.

"Whoa, it's just me." Kendall said, raising his hands. Kendall noticed that Kelly was shaking and had tears in her eyes.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Kendall asked as Kelly lowered the gun.

Kendall took a few steps until he could see Carlos. The boy didn't look like himself at all. When Kendall looked over at Kelly, she gestured to the monitor before she rewound the tape. Kendall saw a flurry of things and people before it was just Carlos and him. Kelly fast forward until Carlos hugged Dr. Wainwright before handing her his empty dinner plate.

Carlos started reading the back of the DVDs that Kendall had left him before the lights flickered and Carlos jumped out of bed. A few men walked into the room and Carlos held his hands up to them. They grabbed him and held him down. A few more men walked in with a lot of equipment that Kendall had never seen before. When the men let Carlos go, General Griffin walked in and he was saying something to Carlos that made his heart race faster, according to the machine. Kelly stopped the video and Kendall realized that Carlos' heart racing was happening now. Kelly stood up quickly and Kendall placed a hand on her arm.

"I'll go."

"No, I-"

"Kelly, you have a gun in your hand and you're still crying."

"Fine. Go." She told him and he nodded before walking over to the door. He opened it and Carlos was moving around in his bed but he wasn't sitting up.

Kendall jogged the small distance to Carlos' room door and opened it. He could now see that Carlos was sleep but he must've been having some sort of nightmare. Kendall shook the boy slightly and Carlos jolted up, almost crashing their heads together if Kendall didn't react quickly enough.

"Carlos, calm down. It's me." Kendall said as he watched the panic and confusion leave Carlos' eyes.

"Kendall." Carlos said as tears came to his eyes before he wrapped his arms around the blonde. Kendall eased himself onto the bed while continuing to hold the boy in his arms.

"Don't worry, I'm here." Kendall said as he rubbed Carlos' back. Kendall had never even touched Carlos really but now that he was hugging him, General Griffin's words came to mind before being overshadowed by Dr. Wainwright's words about Carlos being normal. Just as quickly as Carlos had hugged the blonde, he was letting go.

"I'm sorry." He said, wrapping his arms around himself. "I should've ask-"

"No, you don't have to." Kendall said, taking Carlos' hands and wrapping them around him again. Carlos' body shook with his sobbing and Kendall just held him rubbing his back. Kendall didn't need to see what happened to know that it was bad. They sat there until Kendall started to feel uncomfortable from staying in the same position for so long. He knew that Carlos was starting to feel that way when the boy moved away from him. Carlos laid back down and Kendall couldn't help but feel bad for the boy.

"Kendall, can you come here?" Kelly asked over the speakers. Kendall patted Carlos' shoulder before he left the room. Once he entered the room with Kelly, he saw that the woman was more composed than she was before.

"Things are getting bad." She told the boy and he nodded, not exactly knowing what to say.

"General Griffin is overstepping and I think he's going to get worse."

"Worse? What exactly did they do before?"

"They're taking large amounts of blood samples from Carlos and that's part of the reason why he's been sleeping this entire time."

"What are we going to do?"

"For right now, we can't do anything. I have to go but I'll be back, take this." Kelly said, out stretching the gun.

"W-What am I supposed to do with that."

"Keep it with you and if they come back-"

"Kelly, do you hear yourself?"

"Look, I know what I'm doing. I am trusting you to stay here."

"Where are you going?"

"I have to go."

"Look, Kelly if you're trusting me to stay here, the least you can do is tell me where you're going?"

"My mom isn't feeling well and I need to go check on her."

"Dr. Wainwright? What happened?"

"She's old Kendall, what do you expect?"

"She seemed perfectly fine the other day."

"Well, she's not fine now. So, just stay here while I go check on her. I'm going to hide the gun and if you have to use it, you'll know where it is." She told Kendall before she taped the gun underneath the table and exiting the room.

Kendall sat down in the chair in front of the monitor, watching the boy as he slept.

* * *

 **A/N: Things are getting intense you guys. Dr. Wainwright is sick, Kelly is ready to shoot someone, Carlos is going through so much, and Kendall is just trying to keep everyone together. I can't wait for you guys to find out what happens next. Thank you for reading and reviews are much appreciated! :D**


	7. Escape

**A/N: This chapter was something that I've been thinking about the moment I visualized this chapter. I am so happy to be able to share this with all of you now. Enjoy! :D**

* * *

While Kendall was at school, he couldn't really focus on anything. His mind just kept drifting off about Carlos and the boy's safety. The last time he was with the boy, he had to hold him and make sure that he was okay. Kendall knew that right now, since Dr. Wainwright was sick, Kelly was watching over Carlos and he knew that Kelly wouldn't be able to hold it together, especially the second time Carlos woke up from another nightmare. Kendall was walking down the hallway, heading to his last class of the day when his boyfriend stepped in the way.

"Kendall, are you even listening to me right now?"

"I'm sorry."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just have a lot on my mind right now."

"Well, you know you can talk to me about anything."

"I know."

"So, tell me what's bothering you."

"I can't. I know that's confusing but I can't think of how I would be able to explain things to you." Kendall said, rubbing the back of his head.

"…Okay, well, are you going to come watch me practice? I can give you a ride home and we can take…the scenic route."

"Uh, I can't."

"Why not?" Jett said, pouting.

"Jett, we have to get to class."

"Why are you avoiding me?"

"I'm not-"

"Don't sit here and tell this lie, Kendall."

"Jett, I-"

"I thought you loved me."

"Don't. Don't do that."

"I just-"

"I can't believe you just did that."

"Kendall, you have been avoiding me and I'm starting to feel like-"

"Feel like what?" Kendall asked, glaring at his boyfriend.

"Kendall, you can't be the one getting upset. I'm the one that's allowed to be upset."

"And why is that?"

"Because my boyfriend is neglecting me and going off and doing who knows what."

"I go to work."

"That is the oldest excuse in the book!"

"I am going to work! What? Do you think-" Kendall stop talking the second he realized where this conversation is going.

"I can't believe you." Kendall said before he stepped around his boyfriend and headed to class, ignoring the calls for him to come back. The entire class, Kendall was seething from the accusations that were thrown his way. Once class was over, he found James and Logan and exited the building.

"James, can you take me to work?"

"You have to work after school?"

"It's more of me going to check up on a few things."

"Alright, do you need me to come pick you up?"

"No, I'll be fine." Kendall said as he sat back.

"If you say so." James said before he turned out of the parking lot.

* * *

When they pulled up to the parking lot, Kendall had half a mind to respond to the abundant of texts that Jett had sent him in the last ten minutes. Instead, Kendall reached into his pocket and texted his mother that he'd be staying over James' house for the night. She replied to him almost immediately, wishing him a great time before James pulled to a stop in front of the building.

"Thanks, man."

"No, problem. Call me if you need anything." James said and Logan nodded along with him.

"Alright." Kendall said as he made his way to the building.

Once he got inside, he made his way to the elevator and typed in the combination once the people here for the exhibit moved. He got this uneasy feeling again as the elevator descended. When the doors opened, the hallways were filled with a bunch of furniture. Kendall stopped walking when he saw his DVDs on a table. He ran his fingers over them and turned to see that Carlos' bed was leaning up against the wall. His eyes widened when he heard banging and he ran towards where Carlos was and when he got to the door, Kelly was standing there banging on it.

"GENERAL GRIFFIN, OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR! WHAT YOU'RE DOING IS-"

"Kelly, what is going on?" Kelly turned quickly and when Kendall saw the look on her face, he knew something was horribly wrong. Her face looked as if she hadn't slept for days as she stared at him for a moment. Kendall almost gasped when the woman jumped toward him, covering his mouth.

"Kendall you need to get out of here." She said, pushing him towards the elevator. Kendall stumbled as he moved before he removed the woman's hand from his mouth.

"What is going on?"

"Things have gone horribly wrong and I need you to leave the building. Go somewhere and when I call you, come back. Right now, things aren't safe."

"Kelly, just tell me what's going on?"

"Now is not the time." She said, pushing Kendall into the elevator once the doors were opened. She reached into her pockets and handed Kendall a set of car keys.

"Kelly-"

"Grey Ford Explorer." She said before the elevator doors closed.

As Kendall rode the elevator back up, he stood there stumped as to what was going on but he knew that going back down wouldn't be the best idea. When the doors opened, Kendall made his way to Kelly's car as instructed. When he unlocked it, he climbed in the driver's seat and sat there, waiting. He reached into his pocket and turned his phone back on for when Kelly called.

Minutes turned into hours and by the time it was dark, Kendall had fallen asleep. He jumped up when his phone started ringing. When he saw that it was Jett calling he sighed before answering. "I'm sorry." Jett said, almost immediately.

"Jett-"

"No, Kendall, let me speak, please. I want to apologize for what I said in the hallway. I know that you've been completely faithful to me and I just jumped to those conclusions because…well because I got caught up in the gossip with my cheer squad and…" Jett's voice faded when Kendall removed the phone from his ear when he felt it vibrating. It was an unknown number and he knew it had to be Kelly.

"Jett, I accept your apology but I have to go."

"What? Why?"

"Because Kelly is calling and I have to answer."

"Ken-"

"Love you, bye." Kendall said before he answered the other call.

"Kendall?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you see General Griffin leave?"

"General Griffin? No."

"Do you see a white Escalade?" Kelly asked and Kendall's eyes scanned the few cars that were in the parking lot.

"No, I don't see one."

"He must've left then. I need you to come down here now. Hurry." Kelly told him and Kendall immediately jumped out of the car, locking it on his way back to the building. He gasped and hid in a nearby bush when a few military men were walking towards the doors. He didn't know who exactly he could trust, so he hid there just to be sure that no one saw him. Just by the way Kelly was whispering on the phone told him that something was up.

When the men walked passed the bushes, Kendall followed their movement with his eyes until they were out of his sight. He waited a moment longer before he went inside the building. The people who had been there for the exhibit were long gone and the place was eerily quiet. Kendall typed in the combination to the elevator again and as he descended for the second time, he, once again, couldn't shake the uneasy feeling. When the elevator doors opened, Kendall moved pass all of Carlos' things and made his way to the boy's room. When he got there, door was already open and when he stepped in, he turned to see Kelly holding a gun, pointed at him.

"Oh, thank god." She said, lowering the gun.

"What's going on?"

"Those bastards locked me out. I knew I shouldn't have left. I knew I should've just stayed here." Kelly said, talking to herself as she emptied out a book bag. She groaned before dumping everything out on the desk. She scrambled to pick up something and Kendall moved closer to see that it was a USB.

"Kelly, what are yo-"

"Kendall, I am going to ask a lot from you in the next few minutes and I need you to listen." Kendall nodded at the woman's words as she typed some things out on the computer.

"What General Griffin did was completely unethical and he-" Kelly stopped talking when she heard a gasp. She looked up to see Kendall looking inside where Carlos was contained. He immediately ran to the door and before he could open it, Kelly stopped him.

"KELLY WE HAVE TO-"

"NO!" She said, pushing him away from the door.

"If you open that door a silent alarm will go off and General Griffin will be here in seconds."

"Then what are we going to do?" Kendall said, looking at Carlos as he huddled in the corner of his now empty room. The boy was soaking wet and shivering as he looked down at the floor.

"We're getting him out of here." Kelly said before she took the USB out of the computer, throwing it in the book bag along with a bunch of files.

"We're doing what?"

"We're getting him out of here. Did you hear me?"

"But what about your mother?"

"She died." At those two words, Kendall's heart dropped. He actually felt a sharp pain in his chest.

"How?"

"My mother was sick, Kendall, and she wasn't getting better. Not to mention she's been on this Earth for a long time. But she knew what General Griffin was going to do the second he found out she was going to pass. She told me before she died that she wanted me to get Carlos away from this facility and I'm going to honor her dying wish." Kelly said as she put on the book bag and grabbed the gun. When she reached for the door to where Carlos was, Kendall put his hand on hers.

"We aren't going to get far before we get caught if you do it this way."

"Kendall, I-"

"I doubt Carlos will be in the condition to run and you can't carry him. I can. By the time you get to the car and drive up to the curb out front, I will be there with Carlos." Kelly looked at Kendall for a moment before she nodded.

"Send the elevator back down when you go." Kendall told her as he handed her the keys. They both let out a deep sigh before Kelly darted out of the room and Kendall pulled open the door. Kendall was half expecting some loud noise but he remembered that Kelly said it was silent. He ran over to Carlos' room and when he stepped into the room, he immediately stepped into a puddle. The sound made Carlos look up at him wide-eyed.

"Don't worry, everything is going to fine." Kendall said as he approached the soaking wet boy.

"K-Kendall."

"Yeah, I'm here." Kendall said as he picked the boy up bridal style. Carlos wasn't expecting to be picked up by Kendall so abruptly and clung to him immediately out of fear of being dropped. When Carlos realized that Kendall was walking towards the door, he stiffened.

"K-Kendall, what are you doing?"

"We're leaving." Kendall said as he walked out of the door.

Carlos clung to Kendall even harder once they left the barrier of his room and stepped back into the main room. Carlos didn't know what to do, so, he just held onto Kendall as the blonde walked out into the hallway. After all of the years being inside, Carlos had never wondered what it would feel like to leave. Kendall leaned over and pressed the elevator button and the doors immediately opened. He stepped in and pressed the button for the ground floor. Carlos turned from looking over Kendall's shoulder to out in front of him.

"My stuff." Carlos whispered, barely loud enough for Kendall to here.

"Don't worry Carlos, everything's going to be fine." Kendall told him as the elevator doors closed. There was a silence between them and Carlos turned to look at Kendall, studying the boy's features. Kendall could feel himself blushing from Carlos' staring before the elevator doors opened. Carlos' eyes snapped forward and he gasped at all of the things that were around him. All of the planes and other artifacts he had never seen before was all around him one second and gone in the next as Kendall ran out the front doors. Kendall couldn't help but smirk a little when Kelly was right where she was supposed to be. She got out and opened the back door for him.

Carlos was too busy looking all around him to realize that they were trying to get him into the car. Kendall could see the boy was mesmerized so he just climbed into the back while holding him. Kelly closed the door behind them and Kendall sat Carlos down as Kelly put the car in drive and sped off. As they were pulling out of the parking lot, Kendall was thinking about where they would be going next. As they turned out onto the main road, Kendall thought about how bad a car chase would be for Carlos to experience as Kelly sped down the road. Carlos was too busy oohing and awing at everything to notice their speed.

"Kelly, where are we going?"

"I don't know yet. General Griffin is bound to find us if we don't get far from here." Hearing the man's name got Carlos' attention and his eyes widened.

"Wait, no, that won't work." Kendall told her.

"Why won't it?"

"Because he knows everything about you. He knows where you live and everything. We also can't drive far away from here because I'm sure he's going to use his military power to get you pulled over."

"So, what do you suggest?" Kelly asked, looking at Kendall in the rear-view mirror.

* * *

Kelly pulled the car over and Kendall climbed out and walked around the truck. He opened the passenger door, taking the book bag and eyeing the gun before looking up at Kelly. The woman was looking right at him before she reached over and took the gun, placing it in her lap.

"Kendall, I want you to promise me that you will take care of him."

"You know I will. I promise." Kendall said and she nodded before he closed the passenger door.

"Carlos, Kendall is going to take care of you now, okay."

"Wait, what's going on?"

"We're protecting you and we're going to make sure that General Griffin won't hurt you anymore. So, I want you to stick with Kendall."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to be okay, don't worry about me."

"I love you." Carlos said, sitting up and giving Kelly a hug.

"I love you too." She said returning the hug and kissing him on his forehead. Kendall helped Carlos out of the car and had the boy step into his shoes before he closed the door.

"Is your friend on the way?" Kelly asked Kendall.

"Yeah and remember that you should probably avoid going home since that'll be the first place he'll come looking." Kendall told her and she nodded.

"Bye Carlos." She said, waving at the boy who was practically her brother.

"Bye Kelly." Carlos said, feeling Kendall wrap his arm around his shoulders. As Kelly drove off, Carlos continued waving until he couldn't see her anymore. Kendall pulled out his phone and sighed as he typed out the number he knew like the back of his hand.

"Hello, James?"

"Yeah."

"You remember you said to call if I needed anything."

"Yeah…"

"Well, this is me calling. I need you to pick me up."

"Oh okay."

"Oh and I'm not exactly at the science facility anymore."

"What? Then where are you?"

"On the side of the road." Kendall said, wincing.

* * *

 **A/N: I just love that ending because you can just imagine James' face when Kendall tells him that. I think this chapter came out better than I could ever imagine. I also love how Kelly is really trusting Kendall to take care of Carlos and protect him. Thanks for reading and reviews are much appreciated! :D**


	8. Secrets Revealed

**A/N: So another update is here, you guys! Ugh, I love this story so much. So, Kendall has finally done it. And now, the next chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

"No, okay just keep driving down the road. Yes, I know its dark out. Yes, I know this is very sketchy but I can explain." Kendall said into his phone. Carlos, on the other hand, was in shock by everything around him. He had only seen stuff like this on his Tv. He looked up to see white dots in the sky.

"Kendall." Carlos said, getting the blonde's attention.

"Yeah?"

"Are those stars?"

"Yes, they are and that's the moon." Kendall said, pointing. Carlos gasped even louder at that before he heard Kendall talking louder into his phone.

For a moment, Carlos wondered who Kendall was talking to but he figured that he would find out in a moment since the person was supposed to be picking them up. Carlos looked down at Kendall's shoes on his feet and took note of their size difference. It made him feel a little weird since he's never worn shoes before. The feeling of his feet being confined was weird but he knew there had to be a reason for Kendall giving them to him. Carlos turned around and looked at the trees that stood there. He'd never touched a tree before. When he took a step to it, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"That's a bad idea." Kendall told him before he went back to talking on the phone. When James pulled up to them, Kendall smiled at his best friend before he opened the back door.

"Uh, Kendall, who is this?"

"This is Carlos." Kendall said as he put on Carlos' seatbelt. James gave his best friend a look as he closed the door for Carlos and sat himself in the front.

"Hello." Carlos said with a wave. James waved before looking at the blonde.

"I'll explain when we get to your house."

"My house?"

"I told my mom that I'm staying over your house tonight." Kendall said, smiling at the look on his best friend's face.

"Oh, wouldn't want to make you a liar now would we?" James asked sarcastically as he drove to his house.

* * *

As James drove, he kept looking back at the boy in the back, who practically had his face glued to the window. Kendall could see his best friend eyeing Carlos and he decided to wait until James asked questions to say anything. Carlos was mesmerized by the things he was seeing outside. He wished things were brighter but he knew that it was night time.

When they drove through James' neighborhood, Kendall turned to look at Carlos to make sure he was okay before James pulled up to his house and turned into the driveway. When he turned off the car, he sat there and turned to Kendall but the blonde just got out of the car. James watched as Kendall opened Carlos' door, helping him out of the car by telling him how the seat belt worked. James got out of the car and watched his best friend as he interacted with this boy.

"This is James' house." Kendall said to Carlos as the boy got out of the car.

"It's huge." Carlos said as he stared at the house. They all walked towards the front of the house and when James unlocked the door, both he and Kendall turned to see Carlos touching the grass.

"Carlos, come on inside." Kendall said, reaching out for the boy. Carlos took his hand and James took note of it before he stepped inside. When Carlos stepped into the house, he was gasping again while James was noticing that Carlos had Kendall's shoes.

"I'll go get the blankets and stuff, Kendall, can you help me?"

"Yeah, Carlos, wait right here, okay." Kendall said and Carlos nodded. Kendall knew that James was going to ask him about Carlos and the second they got to James' room, the boy just stared at Kendall.

"What?" Kendall said when James didn't say anything.

"Kendall…I don't even know where to begin." James said and Kendall laughed a little at that.

"This…Kendall, this isn't funny. What the hell is going on?"

"Well, it's a little complicated."

"Well, simplify it for me."

"Uh, well, Carlos is…a cowork-"

"Kendall, stop. I know when you're either lying or thinking of a fake ass answer."

"Well, James, I don't know how to tell you without you judging him or freaking out."

"…Okay, then, explain your relationship with him."

"Relationship?"

"I mean, you're holding his hand, helping him with his seatbelt in and out of the car, for Christ's sake he's wearing your shoes."

"I know it looks…off but trust me it's not what you think." Kendall said, reaching to grab a blanket.

"Yeah, okay. I'm just saying"

"Yeah, I know what you're getting at."

"Geez, calm down. I didn't mean to get you upset or anything." James said, holding up his hands and Kendall sighed, running a hand over his face.

"I'm sorry, it's just Jett did that earlier and…oh crap."

"What?"

"I hung up on him."

"And you're just realizing it now?"

"Fuck. He's going to be pissed." Kendall said, sitting the blanket he had onto James' bed and reaching into his pocket for his phone. When the call quickly went to voicemail, he sighed and put his phone back into his pocket.

"He's mad isn't he?"

"Yeah, I'll talk to him tomorrow." Kendall said before he grabbed the blanket again. James handed him another blanket before grabbing one for himself. When they got to the front door Carlos wasn't there. Kendall was about to panic but James pointed to the fish tank that was in the living room.

"Carlos." Kendall said, getting the boy's attention.

"You were supposed to stay by the door."

"I'm sorry but there are so many exciting things and look, these are fish. I've read so much about them."

"Yeah James got some of them from this exotic store." Kendall said, looking at James who just looked at Carlos oddly.

"Exotic store?" Carlos asked.

"Yeah, there was this place in Brazil that sold me some of the fish."

"Brazil? That's in South America, correct?"

"Yeah…" James said, looking over at Kendall, who was just smiling. "Alright. That's enough about fish, let's get down stairs before my mom wakes up and curses us out for making noise."

When the boys made it to the basement, Carlos was, once again, looking around at everything. He gasped when he saw the familiar DVDs in a glass case in the corner. "Are all of these movies?" Carlos asked.

"Yeah." James told him and Carlos turned to look at Kendall as the blonde took off his book bag.

"Kendall, we never got to watch-"

"Age of Ultron, I know." Kendall said, laying out his blanket. James looked at the two of them before he went into the linen closet next to bathroom door and grabbed three pillows and three pillow cases. He tossed a pillow and pillow case to Kendall and the blonde caught it with ease. When James threw the pillow and pillow case to Carlos, however, the boy had no idea it was coming and the objects hit him.

"James." Kendall scolded and James was just as shocked as Kendall was that Carlos didn't catch the objects. Kendall rushed over to where Carlos was and the boy was rubbing his eye.

"Wait, stop, you're going to make it worse."

"It's something in my eye."

"I know, hold on." Kendall said, moving Carlos' hand. He took the piece of lint that was in the corner of Carlos' eye. Carlos opened his eyes and smiled at Kendall.

"Thank you."

"No problem, and don't mind James, he didn't mean to hit you."

"It's okay. I guess I was supposed to catch them."

"Yeah." Kendall said, laughing a little before he moved to pick up the objects. He put Carlos' pillow in its case before handing it to him. When he turned around, James was shaking his head while he was laying out his blanket. Kendall laid Carlos' blanket out next to his, placing Carlos in the middle.

"Carlos, take off your shoes, please." Kendall told him and he nodded before sitting down on the ground. James turned to look at Kendall and the blonde made a point of not looking at his best friend. Once Carlos had the shoes off, he stood up and giggled at the feeling of the carpet on his toes.

"This feels different." Carlos said and Kendall shook his head at that. He didn't know how much Carlos was missing out while being in the facility all of his life. Carlos reached down and felt the carpet between his fingers before he heard someone clear their throat. Kendall chuckled a little at James reaction before he gestured for Carlos to come over and lay down on the blanket.

"That's a big Tv." Carlos noted once he noticed it.

"…Thanks." James said before he turned it on. Carlos was mesmerized by the multitude of channels and Kendall couldn't help but sit back and watch the excitement spread on Carlos' face. James flicked through the channels and ended up settling on Ridiculousness before laying down.

Kendall laid down while Carlos just sat up and watched the videos that appeared on the show. Most of them either made him gasp or laugh. Kendall faced the Tv and away from James, knowing that he was going to try and ask him questions about Carlos.

As Kendall felt himself grow more and more tired, he thought about where Kelly was at this point and if she was safe. Carlos had no idea as to what was going on, or at least he didn't seem to know. Then again, Carlos has also been overwhelmed with everything that he's seeing for the first time in real life.

Yesterday, everything he knew about the outside world was just things he's read in a book or watched on his Tv. The last thing that hit Kendall was how Carlos would react when he finds out that Dr. Wainwright is dead before he fell asleep.

* * *

Kendall woke up to Carlos mumbling something in his sleep and he immediately sat up. Once he was coherent enough, he moved next to Carlos and shook him slightly. Carlos sat up with a gasp and Kendall wrapped his arms around him, shushing him as Carlos clung to him.

"It's okay." Kendall whispered to Carlos as he rubbed the boy's back.

"Kendall."

"Yeah, I'm here. Don't worry, go on back to sleep."

"T-There was so much water a-and-"

"It's okay. You're safe and I'm not going to let anyone hurt you." Kendall told him as he laid back down. Carlos laid close to Kendall and the blonde wrapped his arm around the boy he promised to protect before he went back to sleep.

When Kendall felt a nudge against his foot, he opened his eyes and looked at the person. It was James with a stern look on his face before he raised an eyebrow at his best friend. "I suggest you get up before your boyfriend comes over here and sees you in that position."

"What-" Kendall closed his eyes when he realized that he had Carlos cuddled into his side. "It's not what it looks like."

"Kendall…you need to explain everything to me and don't bullshit me."

"Okay, just not here." Kendall said before he untangled himself from Carlos. He made sure Carlos was laid down comfortably before he grabbed the book bag Kelly gave him and lead James upstairs.

"Wait, is Jett coming over?"

"Not this moment but you know him."

"Yeah." Kendall said as he opened the basement door. The two of them walked into the kitchen and sat down at the stools that lined one side of the island counter.

"Okay, talk."

"Well, you can't tell anyone about this."

"Okay."

"James, I'm serious, this is like government secret information I'm about to tell you."

"Kendall, you're making me nervous."

"Good. Where's your mom?"

"She's not here. She left earlier."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Just tell me already."

"Okay, you remember when we went to the science facility."

"Oh god, yes." James said dramatically.

"Well, you remember when I disappeared and the woman brought me back."

"Yeah."

"I found something that day. Well, I found Carlos."

"Kendall that…what?"

"I went to this restricted place because I followed this women named Kelly. That day I followed her is when I found out that they were keeping Carlos in the basement of the facility." Kendall told him and James' eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Why would they have him in the basement of the facility?"

"He's been there since he arrived here."

"A-Arrived here?"

"You remember why Logan was so excited to go to the facility?"

"Yeah, he said it was a restricted…" James slowly stopped speaking as his eyes widened and his jaw extended open. Kendall nodded and he watched at it seemed like his best friend was putting the pieces together.

"Is this the job you had?"

"Yup." Kendall said before he yawned, stretching. He was a bit more relaxed now that he'd finally told someone.

"Kendall, are you fucking with me?" James asked after he sat there a while. Kendall sighed and reached down for the bag he brought up with him. He opened it and smiled when he saw that Kelly had put a few of Carlos' things inside. He reached in and brought out a picture, looking at it briefly before handing it to James.

"No fucking way." James said, taking the picture and looking at it far too closely. Kendall chuckled before he took out his DVDs.

"Are those like movies of his people?" James asked, looking at Kendall, who in return gave his friend an odd look before turning the DVDs to show the title of the movies on the spine of the cases.

"Oh, I thought the bag was filled with his stuff."

"It is but I had brought him these from my house to show him since he liked comic books."

"Wait, that's my Ironman 3."

"That's not important. These are what's important." Kendall said, taking the files out and sitting them on the counter.

"A bunch of manila folders?" James asked.

"I'm pretty sure it's what's on the inside of them that matters." Kendall said before his phone started ringing in his pocket. He pulled it out and pressed the ignore button on the low battery reminder before answering the call, seeing that it was from Jett.

"Hey babe."

"Don't 'hey babe' me. You have some fucking nerve."

"I know everything sounds bad but all I need is for you to come over to James' house when you get a chance."

"Fine." Jett said before he hung up. Kendall wanted to tell him that he loved him but the call was ended.

"He's mad huh?"

"Super pissed." Kendall said, wincing before he heard his name being called.

"We're upstairs." Kendall yelled and a few moments later, Carlos was upstairs, looking around for the blonde. When Carlos walked into the kitchen, he wiped his tears and sniffled. Kendall looked up and immediately felt bad for leaving Carlos downstairs by himself. Carlos walked over to where Kendall was and the blonde outstretched his arms, enveloping Carlos into a tight hug. Carlos felt himself relax now that Kendall was comforting him from his bad nightmare.

"I-I got scared, yo-you weren't there."

"I'm sorry. I was up here with James."

"Oh."

"Here, sit down." Kendall said, moving the stool next to him out. Carlos sat down on it and Kendall turned to see James was looking at one of the files.

"Have you read some of these?"

"No, I didn't get a chance to." Kendall said, looking over and reading what was on the file. There was a picture of an egg-looking thing. The file said that he arrived in it and it only opened when it was near Dr. Wainwright.

"This is beyond weird." James said and Carlos stood up. When Kendall turned to the boy, he saw that he was looking towards the back of the house.

"Carlos, wha-"

"Can I go outside?" Carlos asked Kendall.

"Yeah." Kendall said, getting up. He walked over to the back door and unlocked it before sliding the door open. When Carlos walked outside, he was in awe at how beautiful everything was.

"Everything's so…so green." Carlos said, smiling.

"Yeah, James' mom prides herself on her lawn maintenance. Oh, don't look at the sun, it'll hurt your eyes." Kendall said, covering Carlos eyes when the boy looked.

"Are those flowers?" Carlos asked and Kendall nodded before looking back to see James still looking at the files. When he took out his phone, Kendall ran back in the house.

"James, what are you doing?"

"We have to tell-"

"No, we can't tell anyone about this."

"But we have to tell Logan."

"No, James. It's too risky."

"Logan isn't going to tell anyone."

"I know but if we tell too many people if it does get out, we won't know who said it."

"Kendall, how long have you known Logan?" James asked him and Kendall sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to win this argument.

"Fine, call him." Kendall said before he looked up to see Carlos walking down the steps of the porch.

* * *

Logan walked up to his boyfriend's house with a smile and knocked on the door. When the door opened, he smiled even harder upon seeing his boyfriend.

"Hey, James." Logan said, stepping in and kissing his boyfriend. When James closed the door, Logan walked into the kitchen. "My mother said that you're going to have to drop me off because she'll be busy later on."

"Logan, there's an alien in my backyard." James said, coming up to his boyfriend, currently reaching in to the fridge.

"What?" Logan said, pulling out a water bottle.

"There's an alien in my backyard."

"James, are you okay?" Logan said, reaching forward and holding a hand to his boyfriend's head.

"I'm fine." James said, grabbing Logan's hand. He led his boyfriend to the back door and gesturing for his boyfriend to look.

"James." Logan said, turning to him. "Are you racist?"

"What?" James asked in slight shock before he turned to look at Carlos. The boy did have the appearance of what racist people would call an alien but he wasn't racist. He sighed and opened the door.

"Kendall, Logan's here." He yelled, getting the blonde's attention. Kendall stood up from where he was watching ants work with Carlos. He waved to the boy before he turned to Carlos.

"I'll be right back." He told the boy and Carlos nodded.

"Logan doesn't believe me." James said as soon as Kendall got close enough.

"You told him already?" Kendall asked, stepping into the house.

"Are you two okay? Is this why you called me?"

"Logan, I'm not racist, I swear."

"What?" Kendall asked, completely blindsided by James' words.

"Logan thinks I'm racist because I called Carlos an alien." James told him and Kendall shook his head.

"Logan, James is right. Carlos is an actual alien as in from another planet."

"Then why wasn't this on the news? You two honestly want me to believe that the boy outside looking at grass is an alien."

"Yes." Both boys said at the same time. Logan was about to walk away but James handed him a folder.

"What is this?"

"Kendall brought these with him." James said, smiling. Kendall watched Logan's face as he read about what Carlos arrived in. Logan's mouth slowly opened the more he read as his eyes grew wider before he slowly turned to look at Kendall.

"Kendall…"

"Logan…"

"Kendall, there's no way."

"You can read more." Kendall said, gesturing to the stack of folders. Logan gasped and ran over to the counter.

"Oh, my nerdy little boyfriend." James said, making Logan blush while Kendall went to go check on Carlos.

* * *

 **A/N: Ah! Kendall told James and Logan about Carlos! I know this chapter ends weird but if I included it with the next chapter, it would be huge but don't worry, I'll be updating really soon. I promise. Oh and for everyone who wants to know about when the other stories will be updated, stay tuned because an update for them is on its way. :D**


	9. Protector

**A/N: Happy Fourth of July everyone. Well, my American readers lol. It's kind of weird saying that but I'll get use to it. I'm trying to keep this update thing as frequent as possible but you all know how life gets in the way.**

* * *

It had been about an hour since Logan arrived to James' house and he's spent most of his time reading over Carlos' files. Kendall tried to explain to Logan that everything after Carlos' birth was completely normal but the science obsessed boy wasn't going to listen. So, Kendall just kept Carlos occupied while explaining things around the world to him.

Carlos had a fair understanding of how the world worked but he still wasn't sure about a lot of things. The two of them walked around James' mother's garden and Carlos tried to guess the flowers that were planted. Kendall was surprised that Carlos knew all of the flowers in the garden. As they stood at the last flower bush, Carlos reached out to touch one of the roses.

"Be careful." Kendall warned and Carlos nodded.

"Kendall!" Someone yelled from the house, scaring the two boys. They both turned to see that it was James standing at the door. He gestured for the two of them to come inside and when they did Carlos looked at Logan as the boy jumped up from his seat.

"Hello." Carlos said, seeing the boy for the first time.

"Oh, um, hello. My name is Logan." Logan said slowly, making Kendall raise an eyebrow at him while James laughed.

"Logan, he's not stupid. You don't have to talk to him like that." Kendall told him and Logan nodded.

"Sorry. It's just so…I don't know."

"Can we go back outside?" Carlos asked Kendall.

"Wait, I wanted to talk to Kendall about something." Logan said.

"Okay, Carlos, you can go, I'll be out in a second." Carlos nodded before he went back outside.

"What's up?"

"Have you looked through all of these files?" Logan asked the blonde and he shook his head. Logan reached over and grabbed one of the folders and handed it to Kendall. "This folder talks about how they found something different within Carlos' blood. It's not dated that far away from when we first went to the science facility."

Kendall read over the file and when he saw the note about the second, higher dosage, he closed the folder with a little more force than what he meant and his friends looked at him in shock. "Logan, I don't care what these files say. The only thing that's different about Carlos is where he came from."

"Kendall, are you seriously going to ignore everything in this file?"

"Fuck those files, I've been spending time with Carlos and he is perfectly fine."

"…What do you mean you've been spending time with him?" Logan said looking at the blonde in shock.

"You know that job at the science facility? I got it because I found Carlos that day we went to the science facility. Ever since then, I have been spending time with him every time I went to work."

"And you haven't seen anything different?"

"No." Kendall said, tossing the folder onto the table.

"Look, can we just put this stuff away before someone sees it?" James nodded at Kendall's words before he helped the blonde put the folders back into the book bag.

"Is something wrong?" Carlos asked, walking into the house.

"No, everything is fine." Kendall said, walking over to the boy.

"Kendall, what if we just-"

"Logan, let it go. We aren't doing anything."

"All I'm suggesting that we do a little experiment, maybe draw some blood or-" Carlos gasped at that and hid behind Kendall, squeezing onto the blonde's arm for dear life.

"Ow! No, Logan! Geez! He's been through enough already. What he doesn't need right now is for another person only interested in him for experiments." Kendall said before he realized that he'd managed to scare everyone in the room. The first person Kendall turned to was Carlos and he ushered the boy into a hug to show him that he wasn't mad at him.

"Kendall, I didn't mean for-"

"I know you didn't but he's been through a lot in the past few days and I just…I don't want people messing with him. I want him to be treated like everyone else. So from now on, no more science talk, at least about him, please." Kendall requested and Logan nodded.

"Kendall, you have to understand that you can't show someone this and expect them to just move on without having questions." James said, coming to the defense of his boyfriend.

"I do understand but in the same way you need to understand that this is Carlos' first time in the outside world. The last thing he needs is to be treated the same way he was before." Kendall told them and James and Logan both nodded. There was an awkward silence between them and Kendall broke the silence by moving to grab the book bag with Carlos' folders in it. He took the bag and sat it on the steps before returning to where everyone was standing.

"How about we all go outside." James suggested and Carlos smiled at that and led the way. When they all stepped outside, James grabbed a ball that was in the yard and started a game of catch between Carlos. Kendall was glad that James quickly started treating Carlos like a normal person. Kendall sat down on the steps of the back porch and watched the two play, smiling when Carlos caught the ball.

"I'm sorry for how I reacted in there." Logan said, sitting down next to Kendall.

"Logan-"

"I mean, I sounded like some mad scientist." Kendall couldn't help but nod along with that statement. "I wasn't thinking about him and how he felt about everything."

"I know you didn't mean it like that. I know how much you're interested in science."

"So you're kind of like his protector?" Logan asked.

"Yeah, I guess I am. I promised someone that I would take care of him."

"That's so nice of you."

"I feel like anyone would've done it. You know, stepped up to the plate."

"Kendall, there are people out here who don't even claim their child. What you're doing is beyond nice."

"Alright, stop talking before I blush and James thinks somethings up." Kendall said, nudging Logan playfully. The two boys looked on as James started extending his throws. Carlos started catching the throws but one particular throw Carlos dove to grab it, sending him to the ground. Kendall stood up the second Carlos went down and Logan couldn't help but chuckle.

"Kendall, calm down. All he did was fall." Logan said, making the blonde blush as he sat down. Carlos brushed the pieces of grass off of his clothes but noticed the brown dirt mostly on his white pants.

"You okay?" James asked and Carlos nodded before throwing the ball back, continuing the game.

* * *

At some point, Kendall and Logan moved back into the house while James and Carlos played. Logan was laying down while looking at stuff on his laptop and Kendall was playing games on his phone while it charged.

"Uh, guys." James said from the door and when both boys looked up, Logan covered his mouth in shock while Kendall gasped. Carlos smiled from where he stood covered in dirt and grass stains.

"What happened?" Kendall said, getting up and taking strides to get to the two boys.

"Carlos caught the ball." James said and Carlos held the ball proudly.

"James-"

"I told him not to go for it." James said, holding his hands up.

"I knew I could catch it." Carlos said before he handed James the dirty ball back.

"He landed in the bushes." James explained as Kendall took a small stick and leaves out of the boy's hair.

"My skin feels itchy." Carlos said and Kendall sighed.

"You need to get in the shower. You both do."

"You do too." James said, taking slight offense to Kendall's words.

"I don't have any other clothes." Carlos said, looking down at his dirty ones.

"Don't worry, Kendall has some clothes he left over."

"What about me?" Kendall asked.

"You underestimate how much of your clothes is over here." James said before he led the way to his room. When they walked into James' room, Carlos was surprised by the size of it just like the rest of the house.

"All of Kendall's clothes are behind the door in the closet." James told them. Kendall rushed over to the closet and turned on the light before looking behind the door.

"James! Why do you have so much of my stuff?"

"Kendall, we've been friends for years."

"I've been looking for this shirt!" Kendall said, grabbing a shirt off the hanger.

"It's been here since I had that party and you ended up leaving with Jett."

"Shirtless?"

"Shirtless." James confirmed, smirking, making Kendall blush. Carlos smiled at their friendly banter before turning to the mirror James had in his room.

"What am I going to do with my clothes?" Carlos asked them.

"Well, seeing as your clothes are potential evidence tha-"

"James, shut up." Kendall said, nudging the boy. "Just leave your clothes on the floor when you get out of the shower."

James walked over to his dresser and fished out clothes for him to put on before he grabbed a towel and wash cloth out of the linen closet. "I'm going to use my mom's shower. You guys can use my shower and the shower in the hall." He said before he left the two boys.

"Follow me and I'll show you how the shower works." Kendall said going into James' bathroom. Carlos was slowly starting to just expect everything in James' house to be big and amazing.

"His shower is super weird if you didn't know how to use it but luckily you're in good hands. The nozzle on the left is for the cold water, the nozzle on the right is for the hot water. I don't know which type of shower head you would like but this switch is for the regular shower head and this one is for the waterfall shower head." Kendall said, gesturing to each item. When Kendall turned to Carlos, the boy was already undressing.

"Wait, hold on." Kendall said, grabbing Carlos' hands, stopping him from pulling his pants down. "Let me get you the stuff you need for your shower before you get completely undressed. Try getting the temperature right while I'm gone." Kendall said before he left the room. When he came back, Carlos was still standing in the same position he was when Kendall had left but this time the water was on.

"Is everything okay?" Kendall asked as he walked into the bathroom, sitting the towel and washcloth on the sink.

"I turned on the water." Carlos said, smiling.

"I see that but is the temperature okay?"

"I think so." Carlos said as Kendall reached into the shower.

"Jesus! Carlos the water is burning hot."

"It is? It seemed warm enough when I felt it."

"Did you turn on the hot and cold?" Kendall asked and Carlos shook his head.

"I didn't want cold water."

"No, the cold balances out the hot water." Kendall said as he maneuvered so that he could turn on the cold water.

"Oh."

"There, it should be warm enough now."

"Thank you." Carlos said and Kendall nodded before he left the room. Kendall gathered up his clothes and stuff he needed for his shower and just before he left James' bedroom, he heard Carlos call him.

"K-Kendall."

"Yeah?" Kendall said turning to face the bathroom.

"I-I'm scared."

"Scared?"

"Yes." Carlos said, coming to the door of the bathroom.

"Of what?"

"T-The shower. It-It reminds me of…"

"Right." Kendall said, going back into the bathroom. The shower looked like a miniature version of Carlos' room now that Kendall thought about it.

"This is built so that even if the water did collect at your feet, it would never completely fill up and there's a drain."

"I-I know but it just…"

"You're nervous, I understand. Um, keep the bathroom door open and keep the shower door open, if you want. That way, there's no way it could flood." Carlos nodded at that and stepped closer to the shower, reaching out to touch the water, watching the dirt get rinsed from his hand.

"You know how to wash yourself?" Kendall asked just to make sure he wasn't called back for anything else. Carlos nodded while he blushed at Kendall's question before the blonde left the bathroom.

Carlos took off the rest of his clothes before he grabbed his wash cloth and stepped into the shower. He kept the door open as he stepped under the spray of water. The warm water felt nice on his skin and he when he noticed that the water from the shower was wetting up the floor, he stopped for a moment and slowly reached out to close the shower door.

As the sound of the door closing hit Carlos' ears, he almost immediately had a flash back to when the water first flooded his empty room. He stepped back out of the water and accidentally knocked the bottles that laid on the small shelves down. He gasped and tried to catch the bottles but they all fell from his hands. He leaned down and picked up the bottles while avoiding his face from going under the spray of the water.

Once all of the bottles were back on the shelves, he grabbed his wash cloth and looked at all of the labels. Back at the facility, there were two bottles simply labeled with soap and shampoo but in James' house all of the bottles said something different.

"Axe Dark Temptations shower gel." Carlos said as he read the label. He figured this was the one to use on his body since the rest seemed to be for the face or hair.

When he poured the soap onto his wash cloth, he noticed that the scent didn't smell anything like chocolate as the label said. The gold like color looked pretty to him and he ran his fingers through it. He took some off the wash cloth and put it on his skin, rubbing it in. He noticed it was just like the soap he used in the facility but it had a smell to it.

As he washed away the dirt, he thought about how different things were and how new and exciting everything was. He thought about how different things were from what he saw on television to what he experienced outside. Once he was finished washing all of his body, he stopped and stared at the water falling. He knew he had to wash his face but he didn't know if he could. Every time the water touched his face, he had a small flashback to when the water was flowing above his head. He jumped when there was a knock on the door.

"Carlos, are you okay?" It was Kendall. Carlos sighed when he realized that it was Kendall. The boy who had saved him from General Griffin. He was like Carlos' very own superhero. He saved him, he's taking care of him, and he's protecting him. Carlos smiled a little at that before there was another knock on the door.

"Carlos?"

"Y-Yes?"

"Are you okay?"

"I-I-" Carlos didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to even say it. He was afraid of the water on his face. How was he going to tell Kendall that?

"Carlos, I'm coming in." Kendall said before he was standing on the other side of the door. Carlos didn't know what came over him but he felt this urge to cry.

"Carlos, why did you close the shower door?"

"I-I, the floor was getting wet."

"Can I open the door?"

"I-, um…"

"Carlos, is something wrong?"

"N-No." Carlos lied and he bit his lip, knowing that his voice sounded shaky. He gasped when Kendall opened the door and took a step back. He unknowingly stepped under the spray of water and screamed before falling to the ground, covering his mouth to keep the water from going in. Kendall was holding onto him a second later, moving him out of the spray of water. Carlos gasped for air and held onto Kendall for his life.

"Don't worry, you're not under water. Carlos, listen to me. You're okay, you're fine. We're here at James' house and you're completely safe." Kendall said as he rubbed the boys back. He was only in his underwear when he noticed that Carlos was still in the shower. He had expected Carlos to be out and getting dressed when he entered the room.

When he saw Carlos just standing there through the steam of the shower, he got worried, especially when he noticed the shower door was closed. He hadn't meant to scare the boy when he opened the shower door but the reaction Carlos had when the water covered his face, scared Kendall more than anything. Carlos looked exactly how he was when Kendall had pulled him out of the facility.

"Carlos, Carlos, I'm here, look at me." Kendall said, turning Carlos' head towards him.

"Kendall."

"Yeah, I'm here." Kendall said and for a moment there was silence between them before Carlos started crying.

"Kendall, I-I can't do it."

"Do what?"

"I-I can't say."

"Carlos, it's okay. You can tell me."

"I-I can't put my face near th-the water. It makes me-"

"Don't worry, it was stupid of me to leave you here to do it all by yourself after what happened. Where's your wash cloth?" Kendall asked and Carlos looked to see that it was on the drain. When he saw the water starting to fill up, he held onto Kendall tighter.

"It's okay. It's okay. Look, see, I pick up the wash cloth and the water goes down the drain." Kendall said as he held the wash cloth in his hand. He rung out all of the water before he took come of James' face wash.

"Hold still okay."

"K-Kendall-"

"Don't worry, I'm right here. Hold onto my arm." Kendall said before he moved the wash cloth across Carlos' chin. Carlos tensed up as the wash cloth moved over parts of his face.

"Just close your eyes for me."

"I can't."

"I'm going to be right here. I don't want to get soap in your eyes." There was a silence between the two of them after that and Carlos kept eye contact with Kendall as the wash cloth got closer and closer to his eyes.

"Carlos." Kendall said and the boy just nodded and closed his eyes, holding onto Kendall tight. Kendall wiped the wash cloth over Carlos' face, removing all of the dirt.

"Don't move, hold still." Kendall said as he washed all of the soap off the wash cloth before he wiped the soap off of Carlos' face.

"Done. You can open your eyes now. See how easy that was." Carlos couldn't help but smile as Kendall smiled at him.

"Thank you." Carlos said. Kendall stood up and helped Carlos.

"We have to wash your hair." Carlos looked panicked at that and Kendall was expecting it.

"Don't worry, I have a little sister and I use to wash her hair all the time."

"Kendall, I really don't want to do that." Carlos told him and Kendall stood there for a moment as he thought.

"Okay." He said before he turned off the water.

"We can wash your hair in the sink. That way, you won't even have to worry about your face getting wet."

"Okay." Carlos said, smiling at that.

Kendall helped him out of the shower and handed him a towel. They walked into James' room and dried off. Kendall put on his pants after he dried off his legs. He knew his underwear wasn't that wet and would dry quickly so he didn't bother changing them. Carlos put on a pair of underwear that was with his clothes before he heard footsteps.

"Kendall, I said, Jett is here. What are yo-uh oh." James said before he was standing at the doorway.

"Kendall?" Jett said before he moved pass James. Kendall closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh when he realized how this looked.

"Jett…this is not what it looks like."

* * *

 **A/N: Uh oh, Kendall has found himself in a compromising position. What I love about this chapter is how cute Carlos is when he comes in the house with James, covered in dirt. He's just so care free its adorable. Stay tuned for another update. Thanks for reading and reviews are much appreciated! :D**


	10. Suspicion

**A/N: Hey, sorry for not updating for so long. Life is just too much and I could never catch a break long enough to update but I've still been writing. I've been meaning to update this story for a while now and I'm low-key upset that I haven't been. Enjoy! :D**

* * *

"It's not what it looks like?" Jett asked. "Explain to me, what it looks like Kendall."

"Jett, this is just two friends getting dressed."

"Yeah, right." Jett said, turning and leaving the room.

"Oh come on, Jett." Kendall said, chasing after his boyfriend and grabbing his arm.

"Kendall, get off of me."

"Jett, come on, let me explain."

"Fine, explain." Jett said, removing Kendall's hold on him.

"That was Carlos, he's a good friend of mine. He came over last night and we started hanging out with James. Earlier today, he was playing football with James and he got dirty, so, James let him use his shower."

"Okay, so why were you shirtless and in there with him."

"I needed to get in the shower before you came over." Kendall said, running his hand down Jett's arm before holding his hand.

"Then why does he have on your underwear?" Jett said, pulling his hand away.

"Because apparently I leave a lot of my things over James' house and James said it would be better that Carlos wore my stuff instead of his. That way he could return it to me quicker than James." Kendall lied. He had never thought of a lie with so much conviction. Jett sighed at that and Kendall opened his arms, silently asking for a hug.

"I'm sorry." Jett said, hugging Kendall.

"I know it looked bad but trust me, it's not like that." Kendall said before kissing Jett on the cheek.

"Now go put on a shirt." Jett said, slapping Kendall on his butt. Kendall smirked before he walked back into the room.

"Everything good?"

"Yeah." Kendall said, half sighing as he grabbed his shirt. Carlos was completely dressed in Kendall's clothes and it was clear that the clothes were a little too big for him but he didn't seem to mind. James got him a belt so his pants wouldn't fall down and the shirt was a little too long.

"Come on, we need to wash your hair." Kendall said, ushering the boy into the bathroom.

"Why didn't you wash his hair in the shower?" James asked.

"Because mind your business, James." Kendall said before he reached into the shower for the shampoo. He was glad he didn't put on socks yet because the floor was still a little wet. Kendall turned to see Carlos looking at himself in the mirror and walked up behind him. When he did, a smile appeared on Carlos' face as he stared at the two of them.

"Since your hair is already wet, I can just put the shampoo in it." Kendall said and Carlos nodded before feeling the cool liquid on his scalp. As Kendall rubbed the shampoo in Carlos' head, he heard someone clear their throat. He turned to see that it was Jett standing there, watching them. Kendall turned back to looking at Carlos in the mirror as soon as he realized how Jett was going to react. He decided that he wasn't going to have Carlos be in the middle of this and wait until after he washed his hair.

"Okay, I need you to turn around and lean back."

"Huh?"

"I have to get the shampoo out. Just trust me, okay." Carlos nodded at Kendall's words before he did what he was told. Kendall turned on the water to make sure it was the right temperature before he guided Carlos' head into the sink. When his head touched the water, Carlos gasped and held onto Kendall.

"Don't worry. I got you." Kendall said as he ran his fingers through Carlos' hair, washing out the shampoo. Once all of the shampoo was out Kendall turned off the water and turned to Jett.

"Can you get a towel, please?" Jett rolled his eyes and walked back into the bedroom before he brought back Carlos' towel.

"Thank you." He said before he let Carlos stand and quickly put the towel over his head. He helped Carlos dry his hair as he guided him back into the bedroom. Once his hair was dry, Carlos took the towel off of his head and handed it to Kendall, who hung both of their towels up on James' door.

"Hello, I'm Carlos." Carlos said reaching out to shake Jett's hand once he realized he never greeted the boy.

"Jett." Jett said before he shook Carlos' hand.

"Kendall, can I go back downstairs?"

"Sure." Kendall said before Carlos was out the room and down the steps.

"Stop thinking like that."

"Like what?" Jett said, looking away from Kendall.

"Jett, come sit down." Kendall said, sitting on the bed and patting the comforter next to him. Jett went to go sit down but Kendall pulled him in his lap, kissing his neck.

"Kendall, stop."

"Why?"

"Because it doesn't feel right."

"What doesn't feel right?"

"It's just, seeing you doing that-"

"Helping him wash his hair?"

"There's a difference between helping someone wash their hair and washing their hair." Jett said, turning to face Kendall.

"Okay but I was helping him."

"Is he handicap?"

"No, he's not bu-"

"Then why does he need help with something so simple."

"Because he has a thing with water covering his face." Kendall explained and Jett just gave him an odd look.

"Hey, idiots, we got pizza down here." James yelled up the stairs.

"Oooh, pizza." Kendall said, trying to get Jett excited and happy. Jett stood up and just before they left the room, Kendall turned Jett to him.

"We're good, right?"

"Yeah, we're good." Jett said, cracking a smile at his boyfriend.

* * *

All of the boys were in James' living room, enjoying the pizza when Kendall thought of a way to get them all to bond. So far, Jett has been throwing odd looks at Carlos while he enjoyed having pizza for the second time in his life. James was on his phone while he ate his pizza and Logan was on his computer.

"Hey, James. Where's your Playstation?"

"It's upstairs."

"Can I bring it down?"

"Sure but we should probably go in the basement since it has the best T.V. and I doubt my mom is going to enjoy us sprawled all over her living room furniture."

"Alright, I'll go get it." Kendall said before he left to go get the system. He was happy when he noticed that Carlos was focused on whatever he was looking at outside. While Kendall got the gaming system and the controllers, James moved everyone into the basement where the placement of blankets sparked Jett's interest.

"Carlos." Jett said, getting the boy's attention while he sat there watching James turn on the T.V.

"Yes?"

"Where did you sleep?"

"I slept in the middle."

"Oh, okay." Jett said before turning to see James looking at him. A second later, Kendall was downstairs with the system in his hands. The way Carlos' eyes lit up made Kendall smile. He handed Carlos a controller before he began to set up the system. James looked over at Jett before he looked at Logan, who just shook his head. Once Kendall had the system set up, he sat down in between Jett and Carlos.

"What game are we playing?" Carlos asked the blonde, who just smirked. Carlos smiled so bright when he heard the intro to the game Injustice.

"Have you ever played this game?" James asked Carlos.

"Yeah." Carlos said, smiling.

As soon as it was time to select their characters, both Kendall and Carlos picked their characters in seconds before both picking the same area to fight in. As soon as the match began, the fight was going back and forth before Carlos was the one to emerge victorious.

"Damn Kendall. I've never seen you lose so hard."

"James, he barely has any health left." Kendall said before he tossed the controller to James.

"You still got crushed." James said, as they went back to the character select screen.

"He's going to pick The Flash." Kendall said to Carlos, who laughed when the announcer said the name.

"Told you."

"Time to show Kendall how it's done properly." James said as Carlos picked his character.

"Since when did you start picking Green Lantern?" Kendall asked Carlos after the character was chosen.

"I've been practicing with him a little." Carlos said as they chose the arena. Almost immediately James fell into his same old habits that he did when he picked The Flash but Carlos quickly learned how to counter those moves with the help of Kendall.

"Kendall, stop cheating!" James yelled as his first health bar emptied.

"You're the one cheating." Kendall declared before Carlos' first health bar emptied.

Carlos was trying his hardest but James' character was moving too fast, especially after he did his super move. Carlos had all of his segments of the power bar full and just before James could kill him, he activated the meter burn. Both characters said their banter back and forth while James sat there with a shocked look on his face as Carlos was victorious in the showdown, gaining his health back, before he defeated James.

"Fuck!" James yelled, throwing his head back.

"James." Kendall said before gesturing to Carlos.

"Kendall, Carlos is old enough to kno-"

"That doesn't mean he should hear it."

"It's okay. I've heard those words before. I know not to use them. Kelly told me."

"Kelly?" Jett asked and Carlos nodded.

"Isn't that the woman you hung up on me for?" Jett asked turning to Kendall.

"Uh…" There was an awkward silence besides the game music in the background as everyone looked at Kendall.

"Kendall!"

"Yes but she's nothing but a friend."

"She's almost like a sister to me but we aren't related by birth parents. She-"

"Would you be quiet?" Jett said, turning to Carlos.

"Jett, you don't need to be rude to him." Logan told him before Kendall could.

"Who is Kelly, Kendall?"

"Jett, calm down. She's my boss' daughter." Kendall whispered in Jett's ear so Carlos couldn't hear him and start asking questions. Jett sighed and sat back before Kendall took the controller from James' hands and placed it in Jett's.

"I don't want to play."

"Come on, please?"

"Carlos isn't going to do anything but beat me."

"Then I can play you, right Carlos?" Kendall asked and the boy nodded before handing the controller over. Logan rolled his eyes at that before ignoring the look he received from James. When Kendall and Jett played everyone quickly caught on to how Kendall was obviously letting Jett win. As soon as the match ended, Carlos turned to them but James just shook his head as Jett celebrated. Kendall handed the controller over to James and gave him a stern look.

"Kendall, as much fun it would be to crush your boyfriend in this game. I think it would be better that we did something different." James said and Kendall was about to interject before Jett spoke.

"He's right. I have to get going."

"Where are you going?" Kendall asked him and he smiled.

"Don't worry, me and my squad are going out for a little bonding. It was something planned a while ago. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." Kendall said before Jett stood up. He leaned down and kissed Kendall on the cheek before he left.

"Bye to you too." James whispered to himself as he rolled his eyes before Kendall nudged him with his foot.

"What?"

"Why are you always so rude?"

"Kendall, honestly, you need to ask your boyfriend that but we all know you won't."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"He didn't mean that. Right James?" Logan said, sitting up and looking at his boyfriend, who just sighed.

"Kendall, I'm just saying he was really rude and just…negative."

"Well, can you blame him?"

"No, considering you didn't tell him the truth and instead thought of this elaborate lie that isn't even well put together." James told him and Kendall looked at him in shock.

"You know that this is something that's hard to grasp for people and I told you people don't need to know."

"So you want us to just keep up this lie? For how long?"

"Until…I don't know. This isn't about me and I'm just asking you to do this for Carlos' safety. Who knows how people would react and I don't want him to go back to-"

"I know. I know. I'm just…Kendall this back and forth needs to stop. How about you just tell us who Carlos is and we'll just stick to that in case anyone asks." James said, getting tired of basically having the same conversation over and over about keeping Carlos safe. "But understand that we all need to stick to this."

"Okay, Carlos is a friend of mine that I met while at work."

"But how will that explain why he's living with you?" Logan asked.

"Well, I was thinking tha-"

"No." James said, catching on to what Kendall was about to say.

"Come on James, I would have to think of something to tell my mom and everything. Why can't he stay with you?"

"I would have to do the same thing." James told him and Kendall sighed, knowing his best friend was right.

"I know it's rude to interject into other people's conversations but perhaps I could help." Carlos said, getting everyone's attention.

"I believe lying too much will complicate things. So, I think we should just tell Kendall's mother that I am a friend that is in need and you're helping me by providing me with a living space." Everyone sat there, contemplating Carlos' idea before Kendall nodded.

"That sounds good since it can work for both my mom and Jett." Kendall asked.

"Well, look at who's the evil genius."

"I'm not evil." Carlos said in slight shock.

"No, I didn't mean it like that. You're very nice." James corrected.

"Wait, you're okay with keeping you a secret?" Logan asked Carlos.

"Well, I've been listening and I know now that people knowing about where I come from isn't good for me or my safety."

"That's right." Kendall said, smiling. There was a silence between them before Carlos picked up the remote again.

"Can we play some more?" He asked Kendall.

"Sure." Kendall said, grabbing the other controller.

* * *

Several matches and a multitude of reactions due to video gaming, Kendall could feel how late it was getting. To confirm his feeling, his phone started ringing with the caller I.D. reading his house number. The phone conversation with his mother was very straight-forward and to the point that he needed to get home. While Logan went to go start up the car, James and Kendall cleaned up their mess and Carlos went to go get his clothes from upstairs. When Carlos came downstairs, a woman walked in the door.

"Oh, hello."

"Hello."

"And, who are you?"

"My name is Carlos." Carlos said with a wave.

"Nice to meet you Carlos, I'm James' Mother, you can call me Mrs. Diamond." The woman said, eyeing the boy's clothes that were obviously slightly too big for him.

"Okay."

"Where is James?"

"Mom?" James said, coming up from the basement.

"Hey Mrs. Diamond." Kendall said, waving to her.

"Oh, I see you've met Carlos."

"Who is he exactly?"

"He's a friend of Kendall's and a new friend of mine." James said, making Carlos smile.

"Oh, that's nice." She said, taking off her suit jacket.

"I'm going to take them home and I'll be back."

"I saw Logan in the car, is he-"

"No, he's not staying. His mom wanted him back home."

"Oh okay, what do you want for dinner?" She asked him while she took off her shoes.

"I was going to pick something up."

"Okay, call me wherever you stop." She said, walking upstairs.

"Okay." James said, walking to the door.

"It was nice meeting you Mrs. Diamond." Carlos said before he was ushered out the door by Kendall. "Kendall, where are we going?"

"To my house." Kendall said as he opened the door for Carlos. Carlos got in and Kendall was about to walk to the other side of the car but Carlos scooted over. James gave Kendall a look but he just shrugged it off and climbed in next to the boy. James got in the driver seat and started up the car.

"You know, this isn't at all how I imagined my day going." Logan said, attempting to make small talk.

"Mine either but when your friend calls you late at night about coming to pick him up on the side of the road, it gets pretty unpredictable."

"James, I'm right here."

"I'm just saying, we're in for a change and I'm kind of sort of ready for it."

"No, nothing's going to change. Everything's going to stay the same."

"You say that now."

"James, I promise." Kendall said, smiling when his friend looked at him in the rearview mirror.

"You know, not all change is bad." Logan commented.

"Nothing's changing. Tomorrow, you will pick me up and we will do the same thing we've been doing."

"Kendall, I-"

"Don't say it."

"I was just going to say, I think we forgot the book bag at my house." James said and Kendall sighed.

"We're almost there anyway, why don't you just put it in the car when you get in the house and I'll get it after school."

"That can work." James said before Kendall looked over at Carlos. The boy was looking at everything pass by as they drove.

"Are there always this many cars on the road?" Carlos asked, turning to Kendall.

"Uh, sometimes, it depends on the day and the time of day. For example, at around six in the morning and six at night, there's a bunch of cars on the road because everyone is either trying to get to work or go home." Carlos nodded at Kendall's words before he turned back to the window. Kendall just sat there and watched him. He could almost see Carlos' brain trying to take in so much information and visuals all at once. He kind of felt bad for him since he's spent his entire life in one space. But now that he's out, he's looked ten times happier than when Kendall showed him the Marvel movies. Carlos gasped before he turned to Kendall.

"I think I saw a baby in that car."

"Really?" Kendall said, turning to look back at the car.

"It was so small."

"Yeah babies are pretty crazy to think about. I mean, they're so small and they grow into, well, us." Kendall said before he thought back to when Katie was a baby and how much she's grown.

"Have you ever held a baby before?" Carlos asked Kendall and he nodded in response. "What does it feel like?"

"Well, it's very scary at first because you're holding this small fragile thing that looks up at you so sweetly that you're afraid you'll hurt it somehow. But after that, holding a baby is pretty fun, especially when they move and grab things."

"That sounds amazing." Carlos said, looking at Kendall as if he had solved all of the problems in the world. When they finally got to Kendall's house, both boys got out and said goodbye to James before Kendall unlocked the front door.

"Okay, so, my mom isn't here but my little sister-"

"Who are you sneaking into the house?" Katie asked, standing in the living room with her arms folded.

"I'm not sneaking and this is Carlos."

"Hello." Carlos said with a wave, causing him to drop his shirt. When he picked it up, Katie turned to Kendall and the blonde responded just by shaking his head and walking to his room. Kendall sighed as he threw himself onto the bed and the sudden silence in the room made him sit up, almost too fast.

"Carlos!" Kendall said, getting the boy's attention.

"Yes?"

"Make sure you follow me."

"Okay. I got distracted by the many pictures on the wall." Carlos said, coming into the room.

"Oh."

"Wow, is this your bedroom?"

"Yes it is." Kendall said, trying not to smile that someone admired his room. He took pride in hanging his posters a certain way and making sure everything stayed in its place. He laid back in his bed and was happy to be in his own space. Kendall peaked over to see Carlos just standing in the middle of the room, looking at everything.

"You can look around if you want."

"Can I go outside?"

"I think we should stay inside tonight, at least until you meet my mom."

"Your mother?"

"Yeah, she should be here actually." Kendall said before he got up and walked into the living room. "Katie, where's mom?"

"She went to go get dinner."

"So she wanted me home and she isn't even home?" Kendall asked, more rhetorically but Katie still responded.

"Do I look like her?"

"It was a rhetorical question."

"Well, I still answered it." Katie said before flipping through the channels, looking for something to watch. Kendall rolled his eyes at her before he turned and bumped directly into Carlos.

"Sorry. I guess I shouldn't stand directly behind you."

"It's cool, you're still learning." Kendall said, stepping around the boy and going back into his bedroom. Before Carlos could stand in the middle of his room awkwardly silent, Kendall gestured that the boy sat on the bed with him. Carlos sat down next to Kendall and took note that the blonde's bed was softer than his back at the facility.

"I have a foam mattress cover that makes it really soft." Kendall told him.

"How did you know I was thinking about that?"

"Everyone wonders the same thing when they sit on it. Not that everyone sits on my bed or anything like that." Kendall said, making sure he didn't sound like something he wasn't. Carlos nodded before Kendall stood up and grabbed a book bag from the corner of the room. The blonde grabbed his game controller off of the computer desk and handed it to Carlos before he spoke.

"This is my controller. It's a little beat up and I don't have much games but I do have Netflix."

"Netflix?" Carlos asked and Kendall smiled.

"How do I began to explain what Netflix is? Netflix is a streaming service that allows you to watch tons of movies and television shows. They have so many options." Kendall explained as he turned on his Tv. "Pressed the middle button." He instructed once the television was on.

Kendall told him the instructions on how to get to Netflix and smiled as Carlos' face lit up at the new discovery. As Carlos scrolled through the titles, Kendall took out his homework that he needed to do. As soon as he was about to start it, he heard the sound of the front door opening. He knew it was his mother and he waited a moment before he got up and walked into the living room.

"Kendall, honey, can you go get the rest of the groceries out of the car?"

"Mom, you went grocery shopping again?"

"I forgot some things. Just go get them out the car, please."

"Okay but I need to talk to you about something when I get back."

"Okay." She said before Kendall was out the door. He gathered what was left, determined to not make a second trip. As he was closing the car door, he heard his mother scream. He rushed back into the house to see his mother holding a hand over her chest while Carlos looked frightened.

"Mom, I-"

"Kendall, who is this?"

"This is my friend Carlos. He's actually what I wanted to talk to you about."

"You couldn't have told me that he was here?"

"Sorry." Kendall said, sitting the groceries down and closing the front door, locking it.

"It's nice to meet you Carlos." Mrs. Knight said, smiling as she caught her breath.

"It's nice to meet you too, Kendall's mom. I'm sorry that I scared you. I didn't mean to."

"Oh, it's fine. I just scare easily." The woman said as she put the groceries away.

"Mom?" Kendall said, sitting down at the kitchen table.

"Yeah, honey?" Mrs. Knight said, noting her son's change of tone.

"I need to ask you something. Well, it's more of me asking you something but I kind of-"

"What is it Kendall?"

"Carlos is going to be staying with us for a while. I mean, can Carlos stay with us? I know this is completely random and you don't know him like that but I just need you to say yes. Well, you kind of don't have a choice." Kendall said all as he looked down at his hands. He looked up and grimaced slightly at his mother's confused face.

"What?"

"Carlos is going to be staying here for a while." Kendall said, just sticking with what he said before he started rambling.

"Excuse me? What do you mean?"

"Well, I sort of already told him that he would be staying here and he has no other place to go."

"He has no other place to go?" Mrs. Knight asked and Kendall nodded his head. "Well, how did that happen?"

"Well, um, Carlos is a friend of mine and he really needed my help." Kendall said, looking over at Carlos as he watched the two of them converse.

"Kendall we need to talk more about this before I can jus-"

"Mom, Carlos is homeless and I promised him that I would take care of him." Kendall said, fearing that his mother was leaning towards saying 'No'.

"Oh. Well, he can stay here for the time being but you have to make sure that he feels at home. You're also going to teach him the rules of this house." Mrs. Knight said as she put the bread in the basket that sat on the counter.

"We have rules?"

"Kendall."

"Right, right. Will do." Kendall said, getting up. He gestured for Carlos to head to his room and he flopped on his bed in excitement. "I was sure she was going to tell me that you couldn't stay." Kendall said before he sat up to see the boy standing there. "What's wrong?"

"You said I was homeless."

"Well, technically, you were but now you live here." Kendall said, studying the boy's face as he spoke. "I hope I didn't hurt your feelings." Kendall added as he got up off the bed.

"No, I just hadn't thought about it all until now." Carlos said as he moved to grab the controller where he had sat down.

"How about you watch a movie while I finish up this work." Kendall suggested as he grabbed his books.

"What should I watch?"

"Hmm, let me see. Why don't you watch, Lilo and Stitch?"

"What's that?"

"It's about a little girl who becomes friends with an alien from outer space and…maybe you should just watch a Tv show instead." Kendall said as he thought about how the movie depicted aliens and how Carlos could but two and two together.

"Which one?" Carlos asked as he moved to the television shows.

"Do you like fairytales like Cinderella and Snow White?" Kendall asked and Carlos nodded before handing the controller to Kendall.

"Well, you should watch a different side of it called Once Upon a Time. It's a show that mixes them in creative ways." Kendall said before finding the show in the search bar. He handed the controller back to Carlos as the show started and sat down to finish his homework. Halfway through the show, Kendall looked up to see Carlos practically glued to the Tv.

"Hopefully, binge watching a television show will be enough to keep Carlos occupied while I go to school." Kendall thought to himself as he continued his homework.

* * *

 **A/N: I know this is probably an odd way of ending this chapter but I didn't know how to end it without taking like half of the next chapter. But don't worry, I will be updating really soon. Thank you for reading and review if you have the time :D**


	11. Practice

**A/N: Happy New Year! I am so sorry for saying I was going to update this story soon, only to disappear. I have actually planned for updating more often but sometimes life gets to be too much. Luckily, I haven't given up typing and I hope you all haven't given up reading! Enjoy! :D**

* * *

When Kendall woke up, he saw Carlos sitting on the floor, still watching Once Upon a Time. The boy had one of Kendall's blankets wrapped around his body while he watched. Kendall looked over at his alarm and sighed, knowing that he had woken up five minutes before his alarm was supposed to go off. He deactivated it as he sat up. "Carlos, have you been up all night?" Kendall asked him.

"Yes, I'm on the second season."

"Carlos, you have to get some sleep."

"I know it's just I've never seen anything like this." Carlos said, pausing the show.

"Were you on the floor all night?"

"No, I went to the bathroom and I didn't want to wake you, so, I sat here on the floor."

"Well, come get in the bed." Kendall said as he got up to get his clothes ready for school. Carlos moved from the floor to the bed and sat in the same position with the blanket wrapped around him before he pressed play again.

"Carlos, you're going to sleep all day if you keep watching." Kendall said as he picked out his shoes he was going to wear.

"But I'm not even tired." Kendall knew the effects of binge watching through the night, so, he just let Carlos continue to watch. The boy would be out sometime soon. Kendall entered the bathroom and when he looked for his toothbrush, he remembered that he used it in the hallway bathroom after he ate his dinner while Carlos was in the shower. Kendall went to the hallway bathroom and groaned when he realized that Katie was in there.

"Katie, can you hand me my tooth brush?" Kendall asked, knocking. There was a groan before something hit the counter followed by shuffling and the door unlocking.

"Thanks." Kendall said, taking the tooth brush from her and she groaned in response.

When Kendall entered his room, Carlos was laid out on his side, sleep. Kendall shook his head as he went over to pause the show and finish getting ready for school. After brushing his teeth and fixing his hair, Kendall headed over to his closet to put on the clothes that he had picked out earlier. After his clothes were on, he noticed that Carlos was in a rather uncomfortable looking position. Kendall maneuvered Carlos into a more comfortable position and in the process, woke him back up.

"Where are you going?" Carlos asked, drowsily.

"I have to go to school but I'll be back later."

"Oh okay." Carlos said before he was out again.

Kendall knew that telling something to someone while they're sleep is either a hit or miss in the terms of understanding so he opted to write the boy a note for when he did wake up. Kendall got the text from James that came every morning meaning that he had five minutes left to get ready. After responding to James, Kendall sent Jett a good morning text before grabbing his book bag and heading into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Mom."

"Good morning, Kendall." The woman said, taking a sip of her coffee. Kendall reached into the cabinet and grabbed a pack of PopTarts.

"So, what is your friend going to do all day while you're at school?"

"He's going to be here. He stayed up all night binge watching this show called Once Upon a Time. I don't really care for the show but he loves it an-"

"He's going to stay here?"

"Yeah." Kendall, said, opening the packet and taking a piece of the pastry.

"Kendall, I don't want him in here alone."

"Well, he's going to be sleep and by the time I get back it'll be like I never left."

"I don't think you're understanding me. You brought him here without asking me and last night he ate like he had never eating spaghetti before."

"That's because he hasn't." Kendall said and the look on his mother's face made him wish he had never spoke.

"Kendall, I don't like this whole situation and I know that you're lying to me. I just want to know the truth." She said and Kendall felt his phone vibrating.

"Mom, I just need you to trust that I know what I'm doing."

"How can I if I don't even know what you're doing?"

"I'm helping someone in need."

"Someone you don't even know."

"I do know him, Mom. I know that he deserves better than what he had. That's what I'm doing. I have to go to school."

"We're going to talk more about this." She said as Kendall stepped out of the house. James was sitting outside with Logan in the passenger seat. Kendall climbed in the back instead of taking the driver seat and the two other boys immediately knew something was up.

"Kendall, what happened?" Logan asked as James pulled away from the house.

"Nothing, just my mom getting on my nerves." Kendall said, pulling out his phone.

"How so?" James asked.

"She's questioning me about Carlos because she doesn't know him. I mean, I get it that this is weird but she acts like she doesn't have any trust in me."

"What did you tell her?"

"That Carlos was homeless and he needed my help." Kendall said and both boys held back their sighs.

"That wasn't what we came up with."

"I know Logan but him just being a friend isn't enough to explain that he'll be staying in the house. I thought it worked but she just pissed me off."

"What did you tell her exactly?" James asked again.

"I didn't say anything significant but she just was pissing me off. She's talking about she wants the truth and how the conversation isn't over." There was a silence between the boys as they drove. When they pulled into the parking lot of the school, James turned off the engine and sighed.

"You have to tell her."

"What? I-"

"Kendall, just hear me out. If she knows, she'll understand more and we can have another person to help. An adult, who knows how things work way more than we do."

"James, we are adults." Kendall said, looking at his friend like he was crazy.

"I know but we can only do so much in terms of protecting Carlos. I'm sure wherever he came from isn't just happy that some teenager took him."

"You don't know how they treated him. The-"

"All of that doesn't matter anymore. What's done is done. I just think that telling her is the best plan of action."

"Let's just tell the world then." Kendall said, opening the car door and stepping out. James and Logan quickly followed.

"Kendall, you know that's not what I'm saying." James said, trying to catch up to the blonde as he walked away. "All I'm saying is that it won't hurt to tell your mom the truth."

"What if she doesn't believe me? Huh?" Kendall said, stopping and turning to his friend.

"Kend-"

"What if the second she finds out that I'm not joking she wants to hand him back over to the government? Then they're going to take him and do who knows what to him. Do you know what happened to the only people that actually cared about him? One of them died and the other one is on the one run, trying to keep the government from finding out where he is. So to just get him handed over to the government, not only means that I failed them by not keeping him safe but I fail him. Logan, I'm sure you read what they did to him in there. Do you want to just send him back to that?" Kendall asked and Logan looked like a deer in headlights.

"Kendall, look, I know that this is stressful for you but your mom will not just call the government and hand him over." Logan said. "And before you ask how we know, think about it. This is the same woman that saved your ass after you stole all of that candy-"

"I was five."

"It doesn't matter. I think she's going to be skeptical but she's going to be by your side when she sees how much you care." Logan said and James nodded in agreement. Kendall let out an exaggerated sigh as he rubbed away whatever tears were coming up when he was speaking.

"And if none of this works, we can keep him over my house." James offered and Kendall rolled his eyes at that.

"Oh now you're offering up your place." Kendall said, making both boys laugh.

"Let's just get through this day before we talk details." James said, wrapping an arm around his best friend and holding his boyfriend's hand.

* * *

As soon as the last bell of the day rang, Kendall got up and threw all of his things into his bag. He raced to his locker and took out the books that he didn't need for his homework. When he closed his locker, Jett was on the other side. "Hey babe." Kendall said, before he moved passed his boyfriend, kissing him on the cheek.

"That's all I get? A 'hey babe'?" Jett said, following his boyfriend.

"What? I kissed you on the cheek."

"I haven't seen you in forever and this is how you respond to seeing me?"

"We literally just saw each other earlier." Kendall said as they reached the front of the school. Kendall leaned up against the wall near one of the doors and waited for James and Logan.

"What are you stopping here for?" Jett asked his boyfriend.

"What do you mean?" Kendall asked and Jett sighed.

"You're not going to come watch me during practice? It's been so long since you've been and it's not like you have practice today, so you're just going to be at home bored."

"Actually, Princess." James said, coming up to the couple. "Coach has called for us to have practice today too."

"For what?" Kendall asked before he groaned.

"I don't know, he said something about it being a beautiful day for practice. I tried to talk him out of it but he, well, you know how he is." James said, placing a hand on his best friend's shoulder. Kendall's groan increased in volume and length, especially when he realized that Carlos would be woke by now. There was a silence between the four as Kendall thought about what he could possibly do. He knew he couldn't miss practice and he knew he couldn't leave Carlos at home, especially with how he left things with his mother. She would probably question Carlos and who knows how he would respond.

"I guess I'll see you at practice then." Jett said, kissing his boyfriend on the cheek.

"James, can I borrow your keys?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I need to go home really quick."

"If you miss practice-"

"I'm not going to miss practice but I might be a little late so I need for you to stall for me. Just for a little bit, please."

"I'll try but if I'm stuck doing extra exercises or anything because of you-"

"I'll happily do them for you." Kendall said, trying to compromise.

"Fine." James said, handing the keys over.

"Thanks. Logan, can you meet me back here when I text you."

"Uh sure."

"Thanks." Kendall said before he was running out the door. When Kendall pulled up to his house, he checked his phone to see he had several texts from James. He told Kendall to get the book bag out of the trunk and to hurry up with whatever he was doing. Kendall sighed before opening the trunk and getting out of the car. He decided to leave it running since he wasn't going to be long. He grabbed the bag and went in the house. When he got to his bedroom, he opened the door to see Carlos sitting there watching television.

"Hi Kendall."

"Hey, Carlos. I need for you to get dressed."

"Dressed?"

"Yes." Kendall said, sitting the bag down in the closet before he went through his things for something Carlos could wear. When he finally got it, he handed it to the boy with a smile.

"Are we going outside?" Carlos asked as Kendall went through his closet again.

"Something like that." The blonde said as he grabbed his football stuff. He hurriedly threw everything in the bag before he turned to see Carlos was fully dressed. "Great, let's go." Kendall said before he looked down to see that Carlos didn't have on shoes.

"Hold on." Kendall handed Carlos a pair of his smallest shoes that he owned and helped the boy put them on. He quickly laced up the shoes before grabbing his bag. Carlos made sure he paused the show before Kendall ushered him out of the room.

"Isn't that James' car?" Carlos asked as they stepped outside.

"Yup, hop in the passenger side." Kendall said as they walked up to the car and he threw his things in the back. Just as the two got into their seats, Kendall's phone was ringing. "Hello?"

"Kendall, I stalled all I could."

"I feel like that's a lie but okay. I'm getting back in the car now."

"Okay, I'll let Coach know."

"No, don't what the-" Kendall said, censoring himself as James hung up. Kendall was about to help Carlos with his seatbelt but he saw that he was already buckled in.

"Emma always does this when she gets into her car." Carlos said with a smile and Kendall faintly remembered that one of the women in the show had that name as he nodded and headed back to school.

* * *

As James and the rest of the football team came out onto the field, Jett was looking for his boyfriend. When he didn't see him, he got James' attention just as the brunette was passing him. "Where's Kendall?"

"He had to run home and get some things for practice."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, he'll be here to watch you roll on the ground and scream."

"Shut up." Jett said, nudging him. "And we do more than just roll around and scream." Jett added as James caught up with the rest of the team.

"Oh, I'm sorry, and flip." James yelled across the field, laughing when he received a middle finger from Jett.

"Alright ladies, let's do some stretching." Jett said before he saw James look up in the stands. He followed his line of vision and saw that Logan was getting up from his seat and leaving all of his stuff behind. He wondered what that was all about before he focused on stretching for practice. However, when Logan came back he had someone with him, who looked like they had never seen a football field before.

"Who is that?" One of the cheerleaders asked him.

"I don't know." Jett said as the guy looked at them. Jett closed his eyes in frustration when he recognized who the guy was.

"Oh, he's cute." The cheerleader said and Jett rolled his eyes at her.

"Aren't you supposed to be stretching?" Jett asked before he squatted down. When his boyfriend came onto the football field, Jett made sure to stop him before he ran passed him.

"You're late."

"I know." Kendall said, kissing Jett on the cheek.

"Why is he here?" Jett asked and Kendall looked at him in confusion.

"Oh, Carlos. He didn't have anything else to do."

"Is he why you're late?"

"No." Kendall said before his name was called by the coach.

"Gotta go, bye."

"Bye." Jett said as he eyed his boyfriend before looking up at Carlos in the stands.

* * *

As Carlos sat down on the bleachers, he could feel the heat of them through his pants. He looked over to see that Logan was writing something down while he looked at a book that was on the other side of him.

"Logan." Carlos asked.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"Homework."

"Oh." Carlos said before he looked around again.

Everything was so big and open and he had never seen something like this before. Carlos smiled when he recognized Kendall running out onto the field. His smile faltered slightly when he saw Kendall kiss Jett. Logan saw this on Carlos' face and couldn't help but smirk to himself. When Jett looked over at the two of them, Carlos waved to the boy. When he didn't respond, Carlos thought to himself before he turned to Logan.

"Do you think Jett likes me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm aware that he thinks that Kendall and I are together but Kendall told him that I am only a friend. But Jett still hasn't treated me like how you and James have."

"Wow, I didn't think you caught all of that."

"So he doesn't like me." Carlos said, more to himself.

"No, he's just complicated." Logan said quickly when he saw how Carlos seem to get sad at his realization.

"Can you explain?"

"Well, when we first met Jett he wasn't very social, so, in ways, he expresses his feelings in ways that people don't usually do. He has an odd way of showing his feelings. I don't think he doesn't like you per se but rather he just doesn't know you very well and he doesn't know how to deal with Kendall having a new friend since me and James have been around since they started dating."

"Oh."

"Don't worry about it. He'll be…nicer soon enough."

"Okay." Carlos said before there was the sound of a whistle. He looked out on the field, looking for Kendall.

"White jersey." Logan said, impressing Carlos since he hadn't looked up from his homework while speaking. The guys finished up their stretching before they formed two separate teams. Carlos watched on as the team went through a play. Carlos gasped when Kendall was tackled while he tried to run the ball. Logan chuckled at that while Carlos looked on in concern.

"You've never seen football before, have you?"

"I know of it but I didn't know it would be like this." Carlos said as he looked on.

"Relax, they're fine. They have on protection to keep them from getting hurt."

"Oh."

"I know it looks bad. I was the same way when I first watched James out there." Logan said and Carlos nodded.

* * *

"I had a feeling you were going to bring him here." James said to Kendall as they prepared for the next play.

"Well, I couldn't leave him at home." Kendall told him before the coach blew his whistle again.

"You know he looked terrified when you got tackled."

"He did?" Kendall asked, looking over at Carlos in the stands. The boy waved when he noticed Kendall looking at him and Kendall waved back.

* * *

"Jett, who the hell is Kendall waving at?" A cheerleader asked him.

"His friend." Jett said, not looking over at the girl.

"Are you sure that he's just his friend."

"What are you implying?" Jett said, finally looking over at her.

"Nothing." She said before resuming her stretching. Jett called for everyone to stop stretching before they started the run through their first routine. Carlos watched Jett's routine and was amazed at how they boy could flip so effortlessly. His eyes widened when they launched a girl high into the air before catching her.

"Logan, how do they do that?" Carlos asked the boy next to him.

"Do what?" Logan asked, looking up from his homework. The team launched another girl high into the air and Carlos pointed. "That."

"Oh, well, all of their strength combined are able to push her that high, plus, she jumps herself."

"Oh." Carlos said before he looked over to see Kendall and his team lining up for another play.

All of the guys clashed into each other and Carlos got a little lost as to what was supposed to be happening before he saw Kendall run passed a few guys and down the field. The coach blew the whistle and Kendall stopped running and returned to the rest of the team. Carlos could hear the coach yelling but he couldn't figure out what he was saying. He figured that it probably was something mean because of how angry he sounded.

* * *

Practice was almost over for both the football team and the cheerleading team as the sun started to set. Logan had finished his homework and was reading his book he brought with him while Carlos continued to watch both practices. Kendall took a break from practicing and jogged over to the front of the bleachers where Carlos was. He gestured for the boy to come over to him and he nodded before making his way down the bleachers.

"How are you doing? Are you good?" Kendall asked when Carlos got close enough.

"Yeah. I'm okay." Carlos said, sitting down in front of the blonde.

"Are you bored?"

"No, watching all of this is really fun. I didn't know you could run so fast. Oh, look at the sunset." Carlos said in awe, making Kendall smile. He loved Carlos' appreciation for everything. The space between them was suddenly filled with the sound of Carlos' stomach growling. Carlos' eyes widened in shock at the sound before he grabbed his stomach, making Kendall laugh.

"Don't worry, we'll stop and get something to eat on the way home." Kendall told him and Carlos nodded before a whistle was being blown. "Alright, catch you in a bit."

"Okay." Carlos said before Kendall ran back over to his team.

"Jett." The cheerleader said as she and Jett both watched the interaction between them.

"Don't." Jett said turning away from her. He called for them to go through the entire routine with music as he looked at his boyfriend. Carlos turned when he heard the sound of music being played and he was amazed at the synchronization of the cheerleading team. The football team even stopped what they were doing to watch the team perform.

Once the performance was over, everyone cheered for them and Jett made sure to catch Kendall's eye before they headed to the locker room. Kendall smirked when he saw the look his boyfriend was giving him and the rest of the team quickly caught on. Logan, on the other hand, just collected his things and rolled his eyes at Jett's antics before he headed to the bottom of the bleachers.

As everyone headed to the locker rooms, Carlos followed Logan out and waited in the hallway for James and Kendall to join them. Carlos went up to the trophy case that was on display and looked at all of the pictures of the different teams the school had. Logan watched the boy from a distance and thought about how Carlos paid attention to everything, even the little things.

When Kendall got into the locker room and Jett was waiting by his locker, shirtless. Kendall smiled at his boyfriend before he started to take off his gear. Kendall felt a hand on his chest as he lifted his shirt over his head and smiled. He pulled the gear fully off before being kissed. Jett pulled Kendall closer to him and Kendall remembered that he had Carlos waiting.

"We can't." Kendall said, already knowing what Jett was going to say.

"Oh come on. We can just get shower and go back to your place and do some things that's going to make us have to shower again."

"No, I can't."

"Or we could just not shower."

"Jett, I can't. Not right now."

"Why because that boy is with you?" Jett asked, taking a step back.

"Carlos isn't just some boy."

"He is to me."

"He's a friend and I'm going to need you to start treating him like one." Kendall said as he went into his locker. He grabbed his shirt and jeans from the locker and laid them out on the bench.

"Kendall, we need to talk." Jett said after there was a silence between them.

"Yeah, we do." Kendall said, as he took off his football pants and put his jeans on.

"I feel like you've been avoiding me or something."

"Jett, I've been a little busy with work and all but that doesn't excuse how you've been acting towards Carlos."

"Excuse me?" Jett said and Kendall stopped moving after he put his shirt on. Kendall stood there for a moment and stared at his boyfriend. "What?"

"You're jealous, aren't you?"

"What? No, what do I need to be jealous for?"

"I'm trying to figure that out for myself." Kendall said, putting on his shoes.

"I'm not jealous, Kendall."

"I hope not because there's nothing to be jealous for."

"Is it a crime to just want to spend time with your boyfriend?"

"No but it is when you start to treat his friends differently because of it." Kendall said as he put his things back. He decided that he would have to wash his gear before the next practice.

"Okay, fine. I'll be nicer."

"Thank you. I'll call you later." Kendall said, kissing his boyfriend before he went to find James. When he didn't see him, he figured he already went out to the front. When Kendall stepped into the hallway, he headed to the front and saw Carlos looking into the trophy cases.

"Kendall, have you seen this before?"

"Yeah, its past teams for the high school. The trophies next to them is some of the ones they won."

"That's so cool." Carlos said, making Kendall smile.

"It is." Kendall said before he saw James out the corner of his eye.

"You waste no time getting out of the locker room."

"Why do I need to stay in a room full of smelly guys when I just want to see this one?" James asked before he leaned in to kiss Logan.

"Did you just call me smelly?" Logan asked, moving away from the kiss.

"How about we just go home before you embarrass yourself some more." Kendall suggested to James and he nodded.

* * *

 **A/N: One thing I love about this chapter is the multiple point of views during football practice. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and is as excited as I am for thse updated that I've been doing. Thanks for reading and reviews are much appreciated! :D**


	12. Dr Wainwright

**A/N: Surprise, surprise, I know an update so soon from me is rare these days but I had this chapter done sooner than I thought I would. I have to say this chapter changes things and I'll just leave that and let you guys read. Enjoy! :D**

* * *

As Carlos was outside playing with a ball Kendall had found in his closet, the blonde sat by his back door watching him play with it, kicking it up against the back fence. Kendall was nervous because he chose to tell his mother about Carlos when he woke up but upon awakening, he found out that his mother wasn't home. He called her cell phone but it rang until the voicemail came up. So, while sitting outside with Carlos, he had his phone in his hand.

"Kendall, can you play with me?" Carlos asked suddenly in front of Kendall holding the ball under his arm.

"Sure." Kendall said, sitting up. He got up and followed the boy to the middle of the yard and they took turns kicking the ball back and forth. When Kendall's phone rang, he reached into his pocket to see a restricted number was calling him. He contemplated answering but just slid his thumb across the screen, ignoring the call before kicking the ball back over in Carlos' direction. A second later, the call was coming through again, Kendall sighed and answered it, expecting some automated voice or some creep breathing.

"Kendall."

"Kelly?" Kendall whispered harshly. He held up his hand to signal Carlos not to kick the ball.

"Where's Carlos?"

"He's fine, he's here with me. Where are you? Are you okay? Are you safe?"

"Yes, I've been in hiding but today is my mother's funeral. I wanted Carlos to say goodbye to my mother before everyone else got here."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kendall asked and there was a moment of silence before Kelly's voice came back.

"Yes, I'm sure. I know General Griffin is going to make an appearance and I know my mother would want Carlos to get a chance to say goodbye."

"Kelly, I, uh, didn't get a chance to tell him the news." Kendall whispered to her as Carlos gave him a confused look.

"Oh god. I don't know how he's going to take it but Kendall I need you to tell him right now and come here before everyone starts arriving."

"Okay, we're on our way." Kendall said, walking to the house. He gestured for Carlos to follow him before he went on his phone to call James. He stopped when he remembered that James and Logan were currently on a date. He sighed and called anyway. When it went straight to voicemail he wanted to curse but Carlos was currently standing in front of him. He opened the door and gestured for Carlos to go inside as he thought of another plan. He stepped inside and closed the door behind them, locking it, before he got an idea.

"Kendall, what's going on?" Carlos asked him which prompted Katie to sit up from the couch.

"I, uh, I'll tell you in a second." Kendall stuttered as he downloaded the Uber app. An Uber couldn't be that expensive. His phone vibrated and it was a text from a weird number. It had an address on it and Kendall did a quick google search to see that it was a church not that far away from his house. Once the app was finished downloading, he copied the address and went to the app. He grabbed his wallet to set up the account before he stopped dead in his tracks. He went to his bank app and when he signed in he could swear that he had a mini heart attack.

"Kendall." Katie said from the couch. "You're acting weirder than normal."

"Uh, uh, nothing. Mind your business." Kendall said before going to his room with Carlos right behind him. Kendall stared at the screen and blinked as he stared down at the four figure, almost, five-figure amount in his bank account.

"Kendall."

Kendall looked up from his phone to see Carlos looking at him from his doorway. Kendall cleared his throat and closed the bank app before going back to the Uber app. He put in his information and signed up before he put in the address. When he saw the estimate, he put his phone on hold and sat down on his bed.

"Carlos, I need to tell you something." Carlos nodded and walked over and sat down on the bed. Kendall had a mental battle with himself trying to figure out the best way to tell someone that someone is dead. Someone who has been like a mother to them is no longer here. "Um, you know how this works, right? How, um, life works right?" Kendall asked, trying not to get nervous.

"Yeah." Carlos said with a slow nod.

"So, you know that at some point life will be, um, over." Kendall said, his palms starting to sweat.

"You die." Carlos said and Kendall nodded his head.

"Right, you die. So, um, I was on the phone with Kelly and-" Kendall made the mistake of looking up at Carlos to see the boy's face brighten at those words. "Shit. Sorry." Kendall mumbled covering his face with his hands.

"What did she say?" Carlos said after a moment of silence.

"She said that…that Dr. Wainwright, she uh, she-"

"Died?" Carlos asked and Kendall couldn't face the boy as he nodded. There was another moment of silence between the two and when Kendall turned to Carlos, the boy blinked, a tear falling from his eyes. Carlos sniffed and let out a shaky breath before he turned to Kendall.

"I, uh, so w-what happens n-now?" Carlos asked and Kendall pulled the boy in for a hug. He rubbed the boy's back and a second later Carlos was sobbing on his shoulder. Kendall knew that he was going to take this hard but the look of absolute confusion on the boy's face hurt more than anything. Carlos was able to pick up on everything but this. Kendall knew that he had to get them dressed but he didn't know what to put on. He sighed and reluctantly broke their hug before he stood up. He went over to his closet and reached into the back to pull out two pairs of slacks and two button up shirts. He looked through his collection of shoes and found a pair of shoes he wore to his Grandfather's funeral and another pair he knew for a fact were too small. He grabbed both pairs and laid out the clothes on the bed.

"Now, we go to what's called a funeral. It's a way of paying your respects to the person and a chance to get to say goodbye." Kendall said as he knelt in front of Carlos, who just nodded in response to his words.

As the two of them got dressed, Kendall used his phone to request the Uber. By the time they were fully dressed, the Uber driver called to say that he was outside. Kendall adjusted Carlos' tie and gave the boy a slight smile before they headed for the door. Kendall made sure he had his phone, keys, and wallet before he stepped outside the house, ignoring Katie's questions.

"We'll be back." Kendall said before he closed the door.

The Uber ride was a silent one, the Uber driving finally giving up on making conversation and offering snacks. Kendall kept rubbing Carlos' back as the boy stared down at his hands, wiping them when a tear landed on them. Once they got to the church, Kendall saw Kelly's car as well as a few others. He got out and offered a hand to Carlos to help him out of the car as the Uber driver thanked them. Kendall nodded and closed the door before wrapping an arm around Carlos' shoulders.

When they walked into the church a woman approached them and with a warm smile, she handed them a program and gestured for them to walk through the other double doors. Kendall has always hated this kind of thing but he knew Carlos had to see the woman who raised him one more time. Kendall held the boy's hand as they walked through the doors and Carlos squeezed his hand when he saw Dr. Wainwright.

As they walked down, Kendall spotted Kelly and he could tell Carlos did when he heard the intake of breath. Kelly smiled at the two of them before enveloping Carlos in a tight hug. Kendall let go of his hand in order for him to properly hug Kelly. The two of them started crying together and Kendall took that moment to walk up to Dr. Wainwright. The woman laid there in a pretty purple dress with white and pink flowers all around her, looking peaceful. Kendall's hand trembled as he laid a hand on the edge of the casket. He remembers the first time seeing her and how she cared so much for Carlos and then for him. She took a chance on him to help Carlos and Kendall knew that he had to continue to do his best to protect Carlos and make sure he is treated with the kindness he deserves. That's something he knew she would've wanted for him. Kendall turned to see Kelly and Carlos walk up to where he was. Carlos' lip trembled upon seeing Dr. Wainwright and he turned away.

"Carlos." Kelly said, holding onto the boy's hand. "You have to be strong, okay. I need you to be strong." Carlos nodded at her words before he turned back around. Kendall moved to the other side of Carlos and held his other hand, taking the program that he held.

"Mom, Carlos is here. I know you probably wouldn't have wanted him to see you this way but I think it's something that he needs. Kendall is going to protect our Carlos and I just ask that you look out for them too." Kelly said, leaning down and kissing her mother. Voices came from the entrance of the church and they turned to see woman standing there.

"It's my mom's friends." Kelly explained before she walked over to them. Kendall turned to see Carlos staring down at Dr. Wainwright.

"Mom." Carlos mumbled. "I-I know you told me that you aren't my real mother b-but…for a while I didn't have anyone but you and I learned that I don't have to be from you for you to be my mother. I learned that from a Tv show. I've learned so much since I left my room. Kendall has shown me so much and I wish I could've shown you all of it. I wish I, we, could've spent some time outside together. I think that would've been, just, amazing. I know why we didn't though. It was to protect me. I, um, I don't know what else to say but I love you. Kendall said that I'm supposed to goodbye to you but I don't think of it as that. I-I know one day, when I d-die, I'll get to see you again. Just like you said in that place where people go…um, heaven, that's it. I'll see you in heaven. So, I don't want to say goodbye because that's not what this is. So, I'll see you later, in heaven." Carlos said before he let out a shaky breath and leaned down to kiss the woman's cheek.

"I love you so much." Kendall wiped his tears before he turned to see that Kelly was standing next to him with a hand over her heart. She pulled Carlos in for another hug.

"It's going to be okay, Kelly." Carlos told her and she let out a small laugh as she nodded.

"I know it is, Carlos."

"We'll see her again in heaven, where everything is beautiful and stuff just like she said."

"Oh, Carlos. I love you so much." Kelly said, hugging Carlos again.

"I love you too."

"I see everything seems to be going okay with Kendall."

"Yeah, everything is great. He has a backyard and everything is so green. Oh, last night his Mom made us these things. They were like chicken nuggets but longer."

"Chicken tenders." Kendall explained and Carlos nodded.

"We even had the vegetables that, uh, the ones you don't like."

"You guys had corn?" Kelly asked with a disgusted face that made Carlos smile.

"Yeah, it tasted different but it was good different."

"I'm glad you're being fed well. I see you've got a little tanner." Kelly said as she ran her hands down Carlos' face.

"Yeah, Kendall took me to watch him in football practice. You know he can run really fast." Kendall couldn't help but smile at how excited Carlos was to tell Kelly about everything they had done so far. Some guy got Kelly's attention and motioned to the door or more so outside the doors and Kelly nodded before turning back to the two of them.

"Carlos, that's great. I'm really happy that you're having fun."

"What's wrong?" Carlos asked her and she shook her head. "Nothing, it's just-"

"Kelly." Kendall said, knowing that she was about to lie to him.

"General Griffin is outside." The woman said and Carlos gasped, taking a step back. Kendall grabbed onto Carlos' hand and gave him a reassuring squeeze. "He has to only be here to see if you two will show up."

"So what do we do?" Kendall asked.

"Um, there's a room in the back that the pastor comes through. Go through there and go down the hall. It should loop around to the front but don't go out the door you came in. There should be an exit at the other end of that hallway. It's to their parking lot."

"Okay." Kendall said as he requested another Uber.

"Kelly-"

"Carlos, I love you and I'll see you soon, okay?" Carlos nodded at her words before she kissed him on his cheek after another hug. She pulled Kendall in for another hug.

"Keep doing what you're doing." Kelly told him and that reminded Kendall about the money.

"Kelly, what's with the money?"

"I've set up an account to deposit money to you for taking care of him. Now go." Kelly said before she nudged them in the direction of the door. Carlos stopped to look at Dr. Wainwright for another moment and Kendall reached for one of the white roses that were in the flower wreath. He handed it to Carlos before he pulled the boy into the back room. There was a moment of confusion as Kendall looked for the other door.

When he spotted it, he turned to see General Griffin approaching Kelly. Both boys quickly ran as Kendall pulled out his phone to see that the Uber was pulling into the parking lot. He and Carlos found their way into the hallway and they both stopped in their tracks when they saw Military men in uniforms at the end of the hallway. Kendall gasped and pulled Carlos back to the corner.

"Kelly said go out the other way." Carlos whispered.

"Right." Kendall said before he peaked pass the corner. Carlos gasped and when Kendall looked down at the boy, he was staring straight ahead, grip tightening on the flower in his hand. Kendall followed his line of sight to see an usher staring at them.

"What are you two doing?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"Uh, N-Nothing. We were just leaving." Kendall said, giving her a nervous smile before he bolted for the door, pulling Carlos with him.

"Hey, you can't- ah forget it." She said, throwing her hands at them and turning to go the other way.

When they went through the door, Kendall covered his eyes to the blinding light from going from inside to out instantly. He looked over at Carlos and the boy hadn't shielded his eyes but his eyes seemed to glimmer under the sunlight. When he blinked again, it was gone as he looked over at Kendall. Kendall's phone started ringing and he picked it up to hear that it was the Uber driver. Kendall told him their location and the man sighed over the phone before the car was being driven around to them. They both climbed in and this Uber driver was far less considerate and conversational than the last one. It was nothing but a silence the whole drive back to Kendall's house. The only thing that helped Kendall keep his sanity was watching Carlos twirl the white rose in his hand.

"We're here." The driver said and Kendall smiled at the man before getting out of the car. As they walked up to the front of his house, Kendall saw that his mother was home. He knew he had a missed call from her and a few messages but he chose not to address them until he got home. The second the door was open, Kendall's mother walked over to stand in front of the two of them as they entered the house.

"Kendall, what in the world- you're going to tell me what is going on, right now."

"Okay."

"No, you are going to tell me. Don't fight me on th- wait, did you say okay?" Mrs. Knight said, looking quite stunned. She had rehearsed every scenario in her head of all of the excuses that Kendall could give her and even came up with a few witty responses to them. She did not expect him to give in so easily.

"I just, can I change, please?" Kendall asked her and she nodded, watching as her son grabbed Carlos' hand and walked back into his bedroom. Mrs. Knight turned to Katie who was equally stunned from her position on the couch.

"He usually fights me on everything? What happened before I left?" Mrs. Knight asked her daughter and only received a shrug in response. Mrs. Knight took a seat at the end of her dining room table and waited for her son to return.

When he did, he was dressed in his usual sweatpants and t-shirt combo with Carlos dressed similarly but different colors. The boy held a white rose in his hand and Kendall held a book bag she hadn't seen before. Kendall opened the back door and said a few words to Carlos before the boy stepped outside after giving Kendall a hug. Kendall sat adjacent to his mother and brought the book bag onto the table. Mrs. Knight fought off her motherly instincts to tell him to take it off of the table. Mrs. Knight didn't know who was going to speak first so she took the honor.

"Kendall, I just want to know what's going on. I can tell that something is bothering you and I just want to know the truth. The real truth." Mrs. Knight said and her son nodded before he reached into the book bag as he spoke.

"So, you remember the job that I got a few weeks ago."

* * *

Kendall sat there, trying to gauge his mother's reaction but her face was emotionless. Kendall had shown her everything he had on file. There was a USB of everything but Kendall knew that the documents and pictures were enough for her to get the idea. As he twirled the USB in his hand, he looked up at his little sister as she sat in the chair across from him, staring at the pictures all laid out in order. He told everything that had happened from the moment he stepped into that science facility to when he ran out with Carlos in his arms. The silence was really starting to get to Kendall as his mother turned another page.

"Mom, you've read over all of this twice already." Kendall said but he knew it fell to deaf ears as his mother turned the page again. A lot of what the pages were seemed to be blood tests. There was an abundance of behavioral tests signed by Dr. Wainwright. At the notice of the woman's signature, Kendall looked at the back door.

"I'll go check on Carlos." Kendall said, getting up from the table. When he stepped outside, Carlos turned to him from his position the ground, cross legged with the flower in his hand. He had been looking up into the sky. Kendall walked over to the boy and crouched down to him, not fully trying to sit on the ground.

"Do you think she can see me?" Carlos asked before he looked back up at the sky.

"I'm sure she's watching over you as we speak." Kendall said smiling. Carlos smiled at that as a tear rolled down his cheek. Kendall wiped the tear and Carlos turned to face him. "Did you, um-"

"Yes." Kendall said, already knowing what he was going to ask. "They haven't responded yet. They just keep looking over everything." Carlos gave a slight nod before he looked back down at the flower.

"But don't worry." Kendall said, upon seeing the boy's reaction. "I'm sure they'll be as cool with it as James and Logan."

Carlos felt himself smile at the mentioning of the couple's names. Kendall stood up when he couldn't squat for any longer and smiled down to Carlos, offering him a hand. The boy took it and allowed himself to be picked up off the ground. He wiped his pants as Kendall walked to the back door of his home. Carlos followed after and walked through the door as Kendall opened it for him. Kendall took his place next to his mother and gestured for Carlos to sit next to him. Once he did, Katie looked up from the pictures. Kendall took that moment to speak.

"Katie, please say something. Anything."

"I, uh, I believe you. I mean, obviously." She said, gesturing down to the pictures. "And…I don't care. Carlos seems pretty cool and he's like you said, perfectly normal." Kendall smiled so hard it was frightening as he rounded the table and picked his sister up in a hug. She gasped but let him twirl her around once before being sat down. Kendall turned to see Mrs. Knight staring at Carlos, who blushed under her gaze.

"Mom." Kendall said, sitting down again. Kendall reached out and touched her hand and she looked at him.

"Kendall…I-I don't know what to say."

"Anything of encouragement, Mom. I'm begging you to just…accept this. Accept him." Kendall pleaded as he held his mother's hand. The two of them remained silent as they stared at each other. The longer the silence, the more Kendall could feel tears welling up in his eyes as he stared at his mother, fearing the worse. "Kendall, I-"

"Mom, please. I promised to protect him and I need you to help me." Kendall said, as a tear fell from his eyes. His mother watched the tear slide down his cheek before it fell onto one of the documents. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry." The woman said and Kendall felt all of his reserve crumbled in front of him.

"What?!" Katie exclaimed but stopped when Mrs. Knight held up her hand.

"Kendall, I am so sorry for what I've done to make you think that you couldn't trust me with something like this." Kendall looked up at his mother from his fallen position on the table. He felt his mother run her fingers through his hair.

"I-I don't know what that means."

"Why did you lie to me?"

"I had to protect him, Mom." Kendall said and the woman looked over at Carlos, who seemed frightened.

"Hello." The woman said, smiling at Carlos. Carlos returned the smile as his heart raced inside of his chest. "Who else knows?" Kendall looked stunned at the question as his brain seemed to have a short malfunction.

"I, uh, James and Logan."

"That explains the random sleep over." She mumbled, looking away for a short moment.

"Mom, does this mean you don't care where he's from?" Kendall asked and the woman nodded her head. Kendall reached for his mother and hugged her so tight that Katie was about to intervene when she saw her mother not properly breathing.

"But." The woman said once the hug broke. "I want you to know that this is severely illegal and I have no idea what's going to happen but I'm here for you. For the both of you."

"Does that make us criminals?" Katie asked and everyone turned to see a smile on the girl's face.

"No." Mrs. Knight said but seemed unsure. "We're protecting Carlos." Kendall smiled when his mother said that and he couldn't wait to tell James and Logan that they were right.

"Cool, oh, Carlos I want to show you something." Katie said, grabbing the boy's hand. Carlos got up and followed the girl down the hall. Kendall eyed the white rose on the table and not a moment later, Carlos came back into the room to grab the rose. Once he was gone, Mrs. Knight held her son's hand, getting his attention. "I am so proud of you for sticking up for something and someone you believe in."

"Thank you."

"What's the significance of the rose?" Mrs. Knight asked and Kendall let out a small sigh.

"Well, today we went to the funeral of a woman who was like a mother to him. She's the one who raised him ever since he landed here." Kendall told her and she held a hand over her heart. "He's taking it a lot better than I thought he would. You should've heard what he said to her. It was so heartwarming."

"Dr. Wainwright, right?" She asked, looking down at the documents and Kendall nodded. "So he only has…"

"Kelly." Kendall said, finishing her sentence.

"Okay, okay. So, is there anything else I should know?" Mrs. Knight asked and Kendall sat there, giving himself a moment to think before he face palmed. Mrs. Knight was actually a little shocked at her son's reaction before Kendall let out a dramatic sigh.

"I don't know how I forgot but uh, we took Carlos from the facility because the General, General Griffin, was starting to take a lot of blood from Carlos and doing stuff that he wasn't authorized to do. He's still looking for us."

"Oh…" Mrs. Knight said, trying not to panic. Kendall gave her a smile and she let the smile encourage her, not to panic, but to trust her son and help his friend. His friend who is an alien as in from another planet but seems perfectly normal and not E.T. looking. "So, um, how long do you plan on keeping him here with you?"

"I don't know." Kendall answered honestly.

"I haven't thought about it but probably long enough for Kelly to get away to some place safe." Mrs. Knight could see that Kendall was starting to get sad about the thought of that happening so she tried to change the subject.

"Okay, well, since he's going to be staying here, don't you think he should have clothes of his own?"

"Yeah, I was thinking about that too."

"We can go shopping later this week and we can get him a few things." Mrs. Knight said, momentarily thinking about her bank accounts.

"Oh, mom, one more thing." Kendall said, not missing the slight raise in her eyebrows. Kendall took out his phone and went to his bank account app and typing in his password. He slid the phone over to his mother and tried not to laugh when she gasped entirely too much almost putting herself into a coughing fit.

"Holy sh-"

"Mom."

"Sorry." She said, picking up his phone and staring at the digits.

Kendall smiled at his mother, feeling slightly guilty that he had ever doubted that she would be accepting of Carlos. He felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders now that he had his mother on his side. Now, he just has to get through the impending hours of shopping his mother was probably going to make him endure to make sure Carlos has a proper wardrobe.

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 **A/N: This chapter was really sad to write and I hope you all loved the beautiful words Carlos had for Mrs. Wainwright. Oh and Kendall told his Mom! And she's accepting of it all! I love how she pointed out the illegal-ness of the situation. What do you guys think? Thanks for reading and remember reviews are greatly appreciated! :D**


	13. Retail Therapy

**A/N: You guys, so much has happened since my last update. My laptop broke but my stuff saved to Dropbox and then I started using my older laptop. I must have some type of laptop curse but I just bought an iMac so no more laptop troubles. I also have been pursuing some original works. One day I'll share those with you all when they're done but I will never stop updating on here. As a matter of fact, this week, I will be updating this story again. Enjoy :D**

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"You haven't told Jett."

Kendall turned to his mother and she was still looking through the clothes rack. It wasn't a question, Kendall noticed. It was more of a statement. Kendall was stunned for a moment as his brain made the connections. He looked down at the shirt he had picked up for Carlos and sighed, "No, I haven't."

"Oh, this shirt is cute." Mrs. Knight said, picking up a shirt with a galaxy design on it. Kendall expected his mother to say something but she didn't. He looked down at all of the bags from various stores they had already gone to and shook his head. They had to have spent over a thousand dollars by now. Kendall looked out the front of the store to see Katie sitting next to a tower of stuff. The girl was on her phone and when she looked up she tapped the back of her wrist as if she had a watch. Kendall couldn't help but laugh. The only two people who seemed to have the most fun was Mrs. Knight and Carlos as they literally visited every store. Kendall didn't complain because the look on Carlos' face when he saw everything was enough for him to endure a couple of more hours of shopping.

Kendall was particularly happy because the next store they were going to was GameStop. Carlos hadn't even seen the store because he was so excited to see the clothing store with the manikins in it. Granted, almost every store had them but Carlos found them fascinating. Kendall thinks that his mother is mainly having fun because she gets to get a few things for herself. Kendall was happy to pay for her, of course. It's his mother, he's not stupid. He watched as she took the shirt over to where Carlos was in the dressing room.

"Carlos, sweetie, try this shirt on." Mrs. Knight said, draping the shirt over the door. Kendall couldn't hide his smile when Carlos gasped and grabbed the shirt. A few moments later the door opened and Carlos smiled at the two before looking down.

"I loved this." Carlos said and Mrs. Knight smiled before she hip checked her son and headed back to the last clothes rack she was at. Kendall rolled his eyes and wished he never made that comment about her not having a sense of style. He didn't mean it but she wasn't going to let him live it down.

"Come out here and look into the mirror." Kendall said, taking a step back. Carlos walked out and smiled at himself in the mirror. This shirt had to have been one of his favorite shirts that he has tried on this whole day. Carlos glanced at Kendall also looking in the mirror and his smile widened seeing the blonde.

"This is my favorite shirt." Carlos told him and Kendall smiled in return.

"Good. Do you want to wear this shirt or the other shirt out?" Kendall asked and Carlos thought about it for a moment before he came up with an answer.

"This one." He said and Kendall nodded before collecting the other clothes.

"Which ones do you want to keep?" Kendall asked, holding up the other garments that Carlos tried on. "I personally like this one." Kendall said, shaking the white button up.

"I like that one too."

"Cool." Kendall took the clothes up to the register, calling his mother away from the racks that she was currently looking through.

"That's it?" Mrs. Knight said, eyeing the items on the counter.

"Yes, Mom." Kendall said, moving behind Carlos to take the tags off of the shirt, nodding at the boy's thanks.

Once everything was rung up, Kendall took another bag and added it to the collection building on his arm. He turned to see Carlos looking wide-eyed in the direction of the door and smirked when he saw that Carlos was staring at the GameStop across the way. Before Carlos could ask, Kendall grabbed his hand and led him to the store. Katie went to say something from her spot but shook her head when she saw the boy's faces as they walked from one store to the next. Mrs. Knight just shook her head as she followed the two of them before opting to sit next to Katie and the stack of items they've accumulated. Carlos couldn't believe what he was seeing in front of him. There were televisions that had various games on them for each section.

"PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo." Kendall said, pointing to each section. Carlos went in the direction of the PlayStation section and Kendall followed. Carlos looked over all of the games in excitement. He was a little too close for Kendall's liking but he let it go and watched as Carlos looked over the covers. When he saw something he liked, he picked it up and turn it over. Carlos started picking up game after game after game without putting anything back and Kendall shook his head at the boy. He knew he was about to spend a hefty price in here. He made sure to call his bank ahead of time to inform them of the purchases so they wouldn't freeze his card.

By the time they had exited the store, Kendall had purchased a PlayStation 4, three extra controllers, a variety of games, and multiple PlayStation network cards. The look on the cashier's face was something that Kendall was slowly getting accustomed to since he had stepped into the mall. Mrs. Knight couldn't stop shaking her head as she looked at the two boys walking out of the store.

"Kendall, how much did you spend?" The woman asked and Kendall just handed her the receipt. The gasp his mother had was so severe she started coughing.

"That's more than what you've spent on clothes."

"Not on shoes." Kendall replied, remembering the four figure final price. Kendall tried to explain that Carlos didn't need all of those shoes since he liked to spend his time in the backyard without shoes on but his mother just waved him off and suggested another high price shoes to Carlos. Mrs. Knight ended the conversation with a shake of her head before a sound overtook the group. Kendall couldn't help but smile as Carlos blushed.

"I'm hungry." Carlos mumbled and everyone nodded in agreement before they gathered their items and headed to the food court.

When they reached the food court, Carlos almost dropped everything he had in his hands and Kendall was happy that he suggested that he be the one to hold the bag with the PS4 in it. All Carlos had in his hands were his clothes while Katie held some shoes. Mrs. Knight held a few of Carlos' clothes but mostly things that she had picked out for herself. Kendall held so many bags he lost count of what was his, his mother's, Katie's, and Carlos'.

"There are so many different places." Carlos mumbled and Kendall was the only one that heard him while the two women walked down the steps.

"This might be the hardest decision of your entire life." Kendall responded, chuckling as he walked down the steps. Carlos was right behind him as he looked at all of the different restaurants. They found a spot to put their bags down and Kendall and Carlos opted to stay with them while Katie and Mrs. Knight went to find something to eat.

"Are you having fun?" Kendall asked as they sat there. Carlos smiled so bright that he didn't even have to answer.

"So much fun."

"You know, they say that buying things is actually good for you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's called retail therapy. It's when yo-"

"Kendall?" Someone said. Kendall looked over to see that it was one of the cheerleaders from school. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing much. Shopping." Kendall said, gesturing to the bags. Her eyes widened at the amount before she turned back to the boys.

"Trying to buy Jett's heart?" She asked with a waggle of her eyebrows.

"Huh? No, I'm here with my family and my friend Carlos."

"Hello." Carlos said, giving her a small wave.

"Oh, he's the one that was in the stands with James' boyfriend during practice." She said and Kendall nodded. "He's cute." She said and Kendall smirked, looking over at Carlos, who immediately blushed at the compliment.

"T-Thank you." Carlos said, looking over at Kendall, who tried to hide his chuckling.

"I'll see you guys around." She said with a wave before she was gone. Kendall nudged Carlos who just laughed nervously.

"You know she was flirting with you right." Kendall told him and Carlos nodded. "Why didn't you flirt back?"

"I don't know how." Carlos said and Kendall thought about that for a moment.

"The guys and I have to show you some day."

"I-I don't know."

"Carlos, this is the first time I've seen you like this. I didn't know you were this shy." Kendall said, trying not to laugh.

"I just got this feeling that I've never felt before." Carlos confessed and Kendall wrapped an arm around him.

"What did it feel like? Was it like butterflies in your stomach?" Kendall asked and Carlos immediately looked up at him with wide eyes. "Not actual butterflies." Kendall corrected and Carlos seemed to relax at that.

"I don't know. It's like I was tingling and I wanted to move."

"Oh, that's just nerves. It's okay. Girls probably just make you shy." Kendall said before Mrs. Knight and Katie came back with their food.

"What happened?" Mrs. Knight said as she sat down.

"Carlos, here, just had his first encounter with a girl and started blushing when she called him cute." Kendall said, pinching the boy's cheek as it heated up again. Carlos moved away from the offending hand and fought off his smile.

"Aww."

"Come on, let's get something to eat." Kendall said, getting up from his seat with Carlos following him. Mrs. Knight eyed all of their bags and Katie beat her to the question.

"How much do you think he's spent?"

"To be honest, I think he's spent a good two or three thousand." Mrs. Knight said before taking a bite of her sandwich.

"Can you imagine how he's going to be when he has children?" Mrs. Knight broke out into laughter at her daughter's words, covering her mouth to stop from showing her food.

Kendall and Carlos walked to almost every food station there was and Carlos tried the samples that they provided. Carlos' curiosity got the best of him when he tried something he didn't like. When Kendall saw him frown at the piece of chicken, he fought back his laughter and held a napkin out for Carlos.

"Spit it in the napkin." Kendall instructed, throwing the napkin in the trash afterwards. "How about we try something that I know will be good?" Kendall suggested and Carlos nodded along allowing himself to be guided away from the nasty food place.

"This is Panda Express." Kendall said and Carlos gasped while staring down at the food.

"Is that-"

"No, oh god, no, this is chicken. None of it is actually Panda."

"Oh." Carlos said before looking at the woman behind the counter as she nodded along with Kendall's words.

"I normally get double orange chicken and noodles." The woman placed Kendall's food into a tray before turning to Carlos.

"Um, I guess I'll get that too." Carlos said before he looked at the man making the food in the back.

"What's that?" Carlos said, pointing to the oddly shaped things.

"That's honey walnut shrimp." Kendall said, pointing to the sign. The woman behind the counter took a toothpick and picked up a piece of shrimp and offered it to Carlos.

"Try it." Kendall suggested. Carlos took the toothpick and placed the piece of shrimp in his mouth. He didn't know if he liked the texture of it as he ate it but it had a relatively good taste to it. "How is it?"

"It's okay." Carlos said before swallowing the contents. Kendall contemplated getting a few of them before he decided against it before grabbing a soda.

"Juice or Soda?"

"Juice, please." Kendall grabbed a bottle of juice before paying for their items. Once the boys got back to their table, the girls were almost finish theirs.

"Panda Express?" Mrs. Knight asked and they both nodded.

"Don't worry. It's not actually Panda." Carlos told her and she nodded before looking at Kendall.

"He almost had a heart attack when he thought it was." Kendall explained.

"Oh." There was a beat of silence as the boys opened their containers and started eating.

"So, Carlos, do you know how far along your education is?" The woman asked and Kendall gave his mother a confused look. It must've been something that his mother was discussing with Katie and decided to ask Carlos.

"I was told that I can read very well. I can write and I know two other languages."

"Really?" Mrs. Knight said at the mentioning of multiple languages. "What languages?"

"I know Spanish and French." Carlos said with a smile. "And English of course."

"That's amazing." Mrs. Knight said before looking at Carlos. Both Kendall and Katie shared a look, knowing that those things were on Carlos' files but Kendall guessed she just wanted to have a conversation with the boy. Mrs. Knight continued to make conversation with Carlos and Kendall chimed in here and there until they had finished their food. Kendall thought it was funny to see how Carlos reacted to the different type of vegetables in his food and eventually eating around them.

Once everyone was properly fed, they gathered all of the bags and headed to the car. Everyone seemed to realize the mistake of purchasing a bunch of items by the time they reached the car. Everything was piled inside and when Kendall looked over at Carlos, the boy was looking up at the sky. He had never seen it look so grey. He gasped when he felt a drop land on his cheek before he turned to look at Kendall.

"Rain." The boy said in an excited whisper. He held out his hand and his eyes widened when he felt another drop land on his hand.

"Carlos, you're going to get wet if you stand out here." Kendall said before he got in the car. When Carlos felt another drop, he got into the car but was glued to the window the entire drive home.

"Is this your first time seeing rain?" Mrs. Knight asked.

"Yeah." Carlos said, jumping back at his breath clouding the window. When it went away, he did it again with a smile on his face. Everyone in the car just chuckled at Carlos before he pressed a button on the car door.

"Carlos, don't wind down the window, you'll let the rain in." Mrs. Knight told him.

"Oh, sorry." He said before the window moved back up. He sat back for the rest of the ride home and as they pulled into the driveway, Kendall's phone started ringing. Kendall knew that it was James and he hadn't spoken to him since the day before yesterday.

"Congrats James, you're a nominee for the latest response ever." Kendall said as they got out of the car.

"I'm sorry but my phone broke and I had to get another one."

"How did it break?"

"Logan broke it." James told him. Kendall could hear Logan say something in the background about it not being his fault.

"Kendall, come on, you have to help."

"Okay, okay." Kendall told his mother before directing his attention back to James. "James, James, hey, stop arguing with your boyfriend and come over."

"Why?"

"I have a surprise."

"You, Kendall Knight, have a surprise for me?"

"Yes, you idiot, now come over." Kendall said before he hung up the phone. As Kendall collected the bags, it started to drizzle again. Kendall watched from where he was positioned at the trunk as Carlos looked up at the sky again. He chuckled as Carlos stood there with his arms outstretched, waiting for the next drop. Kendall gathered the rest of the bags and headed into the house, smiling.

"He's never seen rain. This is so cute." Mrs. Knight said, looking out at the boy. Kendall sat the bags down in the living room and stood there, admiring the large collection.

"Kendall, don't you think this was a lot." Katie asked from the other side of the pile.

"Well, Carlos needs his own things. He can't wear my clothes all the time. Besides, Jett is starting to notice." Kendall said before he left out the front door to get Carlos to come back in the house.

"Can't we stay out here?" Carlos asked and Kendall shook his head.

"You can't stay outside in the rain, you'll get sick."

"But it hasn't even started yet."

"How about we go back out when it really starts?" Kendall suggested. Carlos agreed and went inside the house. The two of them moved all of Carlos' things into Kendall's room and Kendall began the process of moving his stuff out of the closet. Carlos began taking things out of the bag and sorting them per Kendall's instructions while said boy created a space for the clothes to go. Halfway through the process, Kendall heard the front door open. Moments later, James and Logan were walking into his room.

"Jesus Christ, look at all of those bags. Kendall, what have you been doing?" James asked as they entered. Kendall stood from his position where he was putting Carlos' new shoes and gestured to the newly arranged closet.

"You two went shopping?" Logan asked and Carlos nodded before taking another shirt out of a bag. He smiled at the design before handing it to Kendall.

"How much did you spend?" James asked, eyeing all of the empty bags that were scattered around the room.

"Uh." Kendall said, stalling as he hung up the shirt. "Enough."

"Where did you even get the money for-"

"James, what's with all of the questions?"

"I just want to make sure that my best friend isn't a criminal." James said and Kendall gave him a look. "Okay, besides the obvious."

"I'll tell you later. I called you over here to show you this." Kendall said as he walked over to the GameStop bag. James looked like he saw an angel when Kendall lifted the box from the bag. That alone and the friendly gesture of letting him hook up the system was enough to get him to stop asking questions or even worrying about Kendall spending money. Logan, however, wasn't as easily swayed.

"Kendall, did you rob a bank or something?" Logan asked, following Kendall out of the room.

"No, Logan, only harboring a government secret alien." Kendall said as he walked into the kitchen for a trash bag.

"So, then, where did the money come from?"

"Taxes?" Kendall said, testing to see if that lie could work. By the look on Logan's face, Kendall knew that the smart boy didn't fall for it. "Okay, I'm getting money from the woman's daughter who has been taking care of Carlos since he got here. It's to make sure Carlos has everything he needs." Kendall explained as he grabbed a bag and headed back into his room. Carlos was helping James with the unboxing of the system as Kendall bagged up the clothes he no longer wanted. He threw it down into the basement before returning to his room to see the system was all hooked up and turning on.

"Man, you work fast." Kendall mumbled as he sat down on his bed next to Carlos. James was perched on the edge of the bed while Logan opted for the computer chair. Kendall pointed at the bag next to Logan and gestured to James. Logan leaned over and saw the slew of games in the bag and rolled his eyes before he handed it to James.

"What is- oh my god?!" James said, jumping up. He dumped the contents of the bag onto the bed before Logan sat another bag next to him. "Kendall, oh my god." Kendall couldn't stop the smile that was on his face as he watched his best friend flip out as he read over each game they bought.

"Bloodborne, Batman: Arkham Knight, Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, Destiny: The Collectors Edition, Little Big Planet 3, Rocket League, Journey, Until Dawn, Star Wars Battlefront, Black Ops 3, Tom Clancy's The Division, Mortal Kombat XL, Horizon Zero Dawn and of course, Injustice: Gods Among Us. Oh, the ultimate edition."

"Fourteen games?" Logan asked, looking at Kendall.

"Well, technically The Uncharted Collection is three games in one but I guess, yeah."

"Kendall, oh my god, what do we play first?" James asked before Logan could ask another question. Kendall looked to Carlos for the answer and James held up Injustice with what Kendall would have to say is the creepiest smile he's ever seen on James' face. Carlos was pretty happy about it, so, Kendall felt he had done the right thing.

Everything looked so clear and crisp on his television that he couldn't complain. He smiled to himself when he thought of an idea. He took out his phone and started adding things into his Amazon cart. He typed in his credit card number before putting in James' address. He had to make sure he had the right address, so, he searched it up on google maps. Once he had it done, he chose next day shipping and confirmed the purchase just as Carlos beat James in the first round of the game. About two hours of gaming happened after that before Mrs. Knight came knocking on the door to Kendall's room.

"Are you boys staying for dinner?" She asked Logan and James who both looked at each other and shook their heads.

"I have to take Logan home because he got in trouble."

"Trouble how?" Mrs. Knight asked, turning to Logan.

"I, sort of, didn't tell my parents I was staying over James' house."

"Wh-"

"But, I wasn't planning on staying. It just happened by accident." Logan explained and Mrs. Knight shook her head at them as she left the room.

"Speaking of which, I should probably take you home now." James said as the game ended, Carlos' character standing victorious. "And I will be back for a rematch." James concluded before they said their goodbyes and headed out the door.

"Do you want to play?" Carlos asked Kendall, holding up his controller. Kendall was about to respond when he heard the sound of rain against his window.

"I have a better idea." Kendall responded, getting up. "Come on."

Carlos followed Kendall out into the living room and when the blonde opened the back door, Carlos walked up and saw that it was raining heavily. Kendall stepped outside while his mother looked on from the kitchen. He turned to Carlos and gestured for him to come out as well while the rain drops landed heavily on his back. Carlos stepped out and gasped as the rain landed all around his body. Kendall closed the door behind them before sprinting into the backyard. Carlos was right after him with a smile on his face.

"This is…amazing. I've never felt anything like this." Carlos said, looking up at the sky. He squinted to see the dark clouds above them. He smiled and wiggled his toes in the wet grass as he looked at Kendall. Kendall knew that they were soaked within a few minutes of being outside but Carlos didn't seem to care. He also seemed to be getting better with his fear of water which was a good thing because Kendall was getting worried about supervising the boy while he showered. He had realized early on that having a shower curtain was much more sufficient in keeping Carlos calm while he showered. When Kendall heard his name being called, he turned to see that his mother was at the back door.

"What on Earth are you two doing?" She asked when they approached her.

"Enjoying the rain." Kendall said, wiping his face as Carlos happily nodded.

"You two are going to get sick if you stay out here any longer." Kendall knew his mother was right and the second they heard the thunder, they were in the house. Carlos looked up at the sky and saw flashes of light.

"Woah." Everyone in the room had a smile on their face when they heard Carlos' gasp at the lightening. The loud rumbling of thunder seemed to bring them back to reality and Mrs. Knight pushed them off to Kendall's room to shower and get ready for dinner.

After everyone had their dinner and settled in for bed, Kendall laid there watching Carlos navigate through Little Big Planet 3. To sit back and watch him play was something Kendall hadn't done in a while. To truly watch and observe and actually see Carlos' mind working. Kendall wondered how Carlos was processing all of this. He had watched the boy keep the white flower from Dr. Wainwright's funeral on the end table and he would fall asleep looking at it. That's when he had a moment to truly think about everything that was happening and how Carlos was processing it all. The boy seems to truly enjoy nature in ways that Kendall thought he wouldn't.

Honestly, Kendall thought that Carlos would be afraid of being outside but he's been embracing it since the second they stepped out of the double doors of the facility. Which was also the same time Kendall became a felon of possibly the highest caliber. Carlos smiled when he completed the game and made his character do a little dance. Kendall smiled and thought to himself that it was definitely worth it all.

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 **A/N: So, I have to say that this chapter was very wholesome and just them all spending time together as a family. I feel like things are going pretty well with this story. Let me know what you guys think. Thank you for reading and know that reviews are much appreciated. :D**


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